Huw Morris and Michael Donnelly,
PlanningResource,
26 May 2009
St Modwen and the Bird Group have angrily hit back after a complaint against an advert for their Middle Quinton Eco Town Vision was upheld.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) told St Modwen and the Bird Group not to repeat the claims following the complaint by Conservative MP for Mid-Worcestershire Peter Luff.
It ruled the advert breached clauses in the Committee of Advertising Practice’s code for substantiation and truthfulness.
The advertisement, which appeared in the regional press, claimed the 258ha site is on under-used brownfild land, not open countryside, the scheme would create more than 4,700 jobs with 6,000 homes contributing towards Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s housing provision.
It also claimed that Middle Quinton’s £100 million investment in infrastructure will deliver Stratford’s Western bypass.
The ASA concluded that the advert "was likely to mislead" because some of the land included woodland, water and agricultural land it might not be considered as brownfield in a formal planning application decision.
It ruled that the "evidence did not show that was the case" regarding the claims on job creation and contributing to Stratford’s housing provision. The ASA added that the infrastructure claim "did not conclusively prove it would deliver the bypass."
The ASA said the advert must not appear again in its current form and that St Modwen and the Bird Group should not repeat the claims unless they have evidence to support them.
But St Modwen has retaliated, questioning the integrity of Luff after he was caught up in the on-going MP expenses scandal. John Dodds, Midlands regional director, St Modwen said: "It is disappointing that the ASA has failed to appreciate the context of the advert, which was designed to communicate a ‘Vision’ of Middle Quinton to the local community based upon the Vision document submitted to the Government at its request.
"The dispute with the ASA boils down to arguments over semantics but we believe we have acted with integrity and sought only to inform the public openly about our plans for the Eco-Town. It appears that our approach is in contrast to Mr Luff’s alleged conduct in relation to his expenses as a Member of Parliament, as reported in last Friday’s Daily Telegraph."
It has emerged that Luff claimed £17,000 in expenses on furniture and other items for his two homes during a four-year period
St Modwen also questioned the ability of the ASA to decide what constitutes brownfield land. In a statement they said: "With respect to the ASA, they are not qualified to make judgements on technical questions such as the brownfield status of the site.
"St Modwen and the Bird Group collectively have over 80 years of expertise in these matters and together with our professional advisors are eminently better placed to fully understand what constitutes brownfield land."
Bird Group chairman, Tony Bird added: "The remainder of the public clearly appreciated the context of the Vision advert. There was only one complaint made against it and that was from a self-acknowledged opponent of the Middle Quinton proposal.
"Members of the public must reach their own conclusions about the credibility of that complaint in light of recent happenings in Parliament.
"It is not and has never been our intention to mislead the public in relation to the Eco Town and we do not accept that we have done so in this case. We remain completely committed to seeing the Eco-Town site selection process through to its conclusion and remain confident that we have a very strong case which has stood up robustly to intense Government scrutiny."
huw.morris@haymarket.com
