Eco towns strongly criticised for inadequate public transport links and other shortcomings by government panel
The choice of sites put on a shortlist to be England's first ecotowns has been strongly criticised for their lack of adequate public transport links and other shortcomings by a government advisory panel, says The Guardian, following the publication of CLG's Notes and recommendations from sesson one of eco towns challenge.
This includes recommendations from the challenge panel to promoters of eco-towns. The Eco-town Challenge was established to challenge and encourage promoters of eco-towns to develop and improve their proposals and to inject new thinking and expertise. The Eco-town Challenge Panel has now met with every eco-town promoter (and local authority representatives for the majority of locations).
One site is dismissed as looking like 'a typical commercial scheme', and several will need to significantly improve their plans, the report makes clear.
Other schemes that have aroused strong local opposition - including Middle Quinton, near Stratford-upon-Avon; Weston Otmoor in Oxfordshire; and Hanley Grange in Cambridgeshire - get more promising verdicts on progress from a group picked by ministers to be "critical friends" to developers competing for the five to 10 schemes to be chosen as eco-towns later this year.
Read the article in The Guardian
Read CLG's news item: Experts lay down the gauntlet to eco-town developers
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