Eco towns getting a rough ride from public, local authorities – and some politicians

Hundreds of residents are expected to walk along a Leicestershire road this late May Bank Holiday weekend in a protest against the area's proposed Pennbury eco-town.

The rally is expected to make its way along the Gartree Road in south-east Leicestershire, through a site shortlisted as a possible location for the new eco-town. These Leicestershire protesters join those in Stratford-on-Avon, where the District Council has decided not to support the proposed eco town development at Long Marston, Warwickshire.

After a recorded vote, Stratford-on-Avon District Council has unanimously decided that the District Council will write to the Government asking for the development to be removed from the shortlist. Speaking at a seminar in London, Lord Rogers has also joined the debate and has slammed proposed plans for eco towns, calling them 'one of the biggest mistakes government could make'.

He said: 'Building in green areas for 5,000 to 10,000 people has to be car-based, it will not be a walking, living community. It goes against everything we know about sustainability.'

Rogers said that he had been lobbying the government against eco towns. 'Whether or not they'll change their direction I don't know, but I certainly hope so,' he said, addig that he preferred idea for developing eco communities in or adjacent to existing settlements.

David Lock, chair of the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), has been advising DCLG on the development of eco towns.

Pennbury and Long Marston are among the 15 locations on a eco towns shortlist published on April 3 by the Department of Communities and Local Government. Up to 10 eco towns are expected to go forward following a consultation period. Ministers want five of them built by 2016, with the other half completed by 2020.

Lock backs a controversial 'fast track' approach to planning approval and development, believing that local and regional planning hurdles could take ten years to overcome. But he argued recently in The Sunday Times that Flint cannot cut out European Union processes.

Lock said: 'What she can cut out and has said she wants to cut out are all the preliminary policy frameworks which can take seven to ten years.'

He said that bypassing these preliminary frameworks would reduce the need for local and regional debates. Flint responded by stating: 'Ihave made absolutely clear that all eco-town bids will be subject to the proper local planning process. I've also made clear that people will have numerous opportunities to have their say and we have set out a clear process for this.'

The Government has also convened an Eco-Town Challenge Panel which will 'throw down its challenge to bidders'. Caroline Flint said: 'Only the best bids with the highest environmental standards stand a chance of being selected as an eco town. The Panel will have a vital role in encouraging and inspiring developers to aim as high as possible in each potential location'.

The panel's 14 experts will challenge developers to improve their visions for eco-towns and deliver world class proposals for the first new towns in the UK for 45 years.

The eco towns development process
Back In Leicester, a 4,000-acre area of farmland owned by the Co-operative Group, along with 100 acres owned by English Partnerships near Great Glen in Leicestershire, has been proposed as a location for the Pennbury eco town. Saturday's protest walk has been organised by the Campaign Against the Stoughton Co-op Eco Town (CASCET).

Eco-town proposals have already sparked other protests, including plans for 5,000 homes at Ford, West Sussex, and 15,000 homes at Weston Otmoor, Oxon.

This is not the only bad news for the eco town lobby. Cambridgeshire Horizons, the organisation responsible for delivering housing growth in the Cambridge Sub-region, has warned that a proposed new eco-town in the region could hamper its ability to deliver on existing planned sites, including Northstowe.

Hanley Grange, near Hinxton, is also one of 15 proposed eco-towns sites announced on April 3. Sir David Trippier, Chairman of Cambridgeshire Horizons said: 'We are already working hard to deliver an unprecedented scale of growth in the Cambridge Sub-region, which is extremely resource intensive. Hanley Grange, like Northstowe, is within the South Cambridgeshire District Council planning area, and is a bridge too far in the current circumstances. We will be taking advantage of the consultation period to put our reasoned views firmly to ministers and officials in Government.'

Alex Plant, Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire Horizons, added: 'We understand the Government’s policy objectives around delivering additional housing, and the importance of ensuring this is environmentally friendly.

'However, there is a real risk that a new town at Hanley Grange would impact on our ability to deliver new homes in Cambridgeshire over the coming years. This is because it would divert resources away from the existing planned sites, particularly Northstowe, which are further advanced through the planning system.

'In addition the scheme has no obvious sustainable transport solutions given its remote location and apparent reliance on the M11 and car-based journeys. It is therefore hard at this stage to see how it could meet the Government’s objectives on environmental grounds.

'We are also concerned that there is a risk that the strong partnership working across local authorities in Cambridgeshire and genuine desire to deliver high quality growth could be affected by a proposal such as this coming in from left-field, rather than through a carefully considered plan-led process.'

At Northstowe, a new community described as a precursor to the eco towns, there is also consternation over progress. 'A good basis, but more ambition is needed,' is the message from planning authority South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) as it responds to the outline planning application for a 9,500 home new town at Northstowe.

In a letter sent on 8 May to Gallagher Estates and English Partnerships, the joint promoters of Northstowe, SCDC says that the scheme falls some way short of the Government's billing of Northstowe as a 'prototype eco-town'.

Director of joint planning Peter Studdert, who has been leading the assessment of the submitted plans, said: 'My letter to the promoters expresses disappointment that the scheme does not yet include any truly innovative approaches to providing renewable energy nor any radical responses to the challenges of climate change. Although we are not seeking a zero-carbon development in the early stages, the promoters need to show how the Government's target of zero carbon development by 2016 can realistically be achieved.'

The letter does recognise the positive aspects of the proposals, in particular welcoming the clear structure of the proposed new town, which will comprise three distinct neighbourhoods separated by 'green seams' linking with the surrounding countryside. The grid street pattern is also praised, as it should form a sound basis for the growth and development of the town.

It adds: 'More work is needed, however, on the landscape strategy and on defining the relationship of Northstowe to the adjoining villages of Longstanton and Oakington. I am also concerned about the poor provision for cyclists - in a town like Northstowe, if genuinely low-carbon lifestyles are to be encouraged, this should be exemplary,' said Peter.

In addition, the phasing strategy needs to be rethought to enable a more cohesive community to be established in the early years of the development, and the higher density housing needs to be relocated from the edges of the scheme to its centre where it will be closest to public transport.

More work is also required on bringing forward measures that will allow the early phases of Northstowe to be built in advance of the upgrading of the A14 trunk road.

The letter comes after a 13-week public consultation on the planning application submitted in December 2007 during which almost 700 consultees submitted their comments on the proposal. 'I remain optimistic for Northstowe and hope to see it become a true prototype for sustainable living. We are looking forward to developing a positive dialogue with the promoters of Northstowe in the coming months, and we believe that the current proposal can form the basis of the forward-looking exemplary community that we all believe is achievable,' said Peter.

Alex Plant, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Horizons, the local delivery vehicle charged with overseeing Northstowe and other major developments sites in the sub-region, commented: 'Northstowe represents the greatest development challenge we have – it needs to be a new type of settlement – one which embodies the very highest standards of design, planning and environmental credentials and to provide a template for sustainable developments across the UK.

'Whilst there is still work to be done to achieve these ambitious aims, we are positively and proactively working with the planners, developers, utilities and other organisations to ensure Northstowe meets the challenge and becomes an exemplar prototype eco-town.'

The promoters of the development will now consider the comments made by the planning authority, and it is expected that revisions will be made to the application during the summer, with a further period of public consultation likely in the early autumn. The planning authority hopes to be in a position to determine the planning application by the end of the year.Government eco-town advisor David Lock was reported in the national press yesterday claiming that wants to streamline the process to ensure that five of the planned ten eco-towns are completed by 2016.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) also has concerns about eco towns. It has previously called for a housing policy which supports 'high density living' in which people live closer together and near to amenities such as schools, shops and healthcare.

The conservation charity said settlements in which people lived in closer proximity to one another would boost community interaction and make public transport, local services and environmental initiatives more viable.

The Proximity Principle study said the 20th century had seen people dispersed widely into suburbs and new towns, causing loss of countryside, pressure on water resources and a growing carbon footprint.

But while recent policies do support higher density living, brownfield development and better public transport, the Government is still encouraging large new settlements and a focus on road transport, the report said.

The plans for eco-towns, which would be separate new settlements of 5,000 to 20,000 homes built to high environmental standards, was worsening the dispersal, the CPRE said.

The conservation group has previously welcomed the eco-towns initiative in principle but remains concerned about the siting of whole new settlements.

Instead, it believes priority should be given to "eco-quarters" or "eco-extensions" around existing urban areas and on brownfield sites and that the new developments should only go ahead in consultation with existing communities.

The report, which said high-density living could be the answer in rural as well as urban areas, criticised the restrictions on development within existing villages while eco-towns were encouraged.

According to the research, which focused on four towns and villages in Cambridgeshire, South Shields and Newcastle, well-designed high density living could improve social cohesion and activities such as community recycling schemes which generated funds for the residents.

It could also cut the carbon footprint through reducing car use, while building terraced houses or flats could reduce heating bills and high-density homes were more suited to district-wide heating schemes and local power generation.

Marina Pacheco, head of planning at CPRE, said: 'Current housing policy is causing settlements to spread out wider, and people are now living further away from each other than at any point since the birth of modern cities.

'The creation of 10 new eco-towns, the centrepiece of Gordon Brown's housing plans, will only worsen this drift and will weaken the social fabric of existing towns.'

And Becky Willis, the report's author, said: 'Despite the advantages of proximity, Gordon Brown's housing policy is causing greater dispersal, by promoting new eco-towns outside existing settlements and refusing to provide incentives for development within existing towns and villages.

'This report suggests that housing policy should focus on supporting existing communities.'

Professor Anne Power, of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, said the report 'reinforces the urgency of compact development where people, services and amenities are all located close together so that people can live more sustainably in a more socially integrated way.'

The CPRE has also warned that the 10 potential new eco-towns will account for just 3% of the promised three million new homes, and those in turn were a fraction of the existing housing stock.

The report suggested 'refocusing on what we have already' would be a more effective way of improving housing in the UK.

A spokesman for Communities and Local Government said the analysis in the CPRE report was 'fundamentally flawed'.

'We believe we can build the homes our first time buyers and young families desperately need in all parts of the country whilst protecting our green spaces and preventing urban sprawl - which is why we are already building at a higher density with the amount of the new housing on brownfield land having increased from 57% to 75% since 1997.

'At the same time, the overall amount of green belt has also increased by 33,000 hectares.

'But we simply cannot ignore areas where there are acute housing shortages, and our plans for eco-towns will bring forward thousands more affordable homes that will meet the highest environmental standards, and have the infrastructure in place needed to ensure that they are well linked and bring benefits to surrounding communities.'

But Liberal Democrat communities spokeswoman Julia Goldsworthy said the Government needed to rethink its eco-town policy.

'New homes are not enough - we need to build sustainable communities as well. This report raises real concerns about the environmental viability of eco-towns.

'What will the Government do to prevent these new developments simply becoming dormitory villages to Leicester, Cambridge or Stratford, with residents commuting to work by car every day,' she said.

And she branded the eco-towns initiative a smokescreen for the Government's 'poverty of ambition', making just a small percentage of new homes reach high levels of sustainability.