Huw Morris,
PlanningResource,
24 April 2009
Government plans for eco-towns will lead to developments that depend on cars, according to environmental campaigners.
Responding to the draft PPS on eco-towns, the Campaign for Better Transport calls on the government to abandon its proposal for eco-towns to be "separate and distinct" from larger built areas. New developments should be adjacent if not within existing urban centres, it adds.
Eco-towns should be connected to adjacent urban areas by rail and not just by bus as stated in the draft PPS, otherwise people will continue to use their cars, the campaign warned.
The final PPS should set clear targets for reducing carbon emissions from transport and slash the maximum proportion of journeys made by car from the "unchallenging" 50 per cent proposed to 40 per cent.
"The government needs to rethink its eco-town ideas at least as far as transport is concerned," Campaign for Better Transport London campaigner Richard Bourn. "Otherwise the eco-towns will simply be high-powered engines of traffic growth in the middle of the countryside and the eco-town label will be a poor joke."
The campaign also claimed draft PPS is missing the principles of car-free development. It said car-free areas should cover a substantial portion of each eco-town, with restricted parking space and streets designed to encourage walking and cycling.
huw.morris@haymarket.com
