Route to a green future

Planning, 27 June 2008

Planning is the elephant in the room as the government progresses its proposals for eco-towns. It will prove impossible to ignore strategic and development control issues as the schemes are worked up.

Ministers have confirmed that the schemes will be processed through the planning system. At some point in the next year or so, the chosen locations will be subject to planning applications. Local planning authorities will need to set criteria for their consideration and public inquiries may be necessary.

The thinking began from the viewpoint that eco-towns should be additional to housing provision in existing plans. The challenge will be to retrofit them into local and regional strategies. At this stage, many local authorities are carrying out their own scrutiny while opposing them. However, at least three of the 15 proposals currently in the running have council backing and their planners are working closely with the bidders.

The government is carrying out a key part of the scrutiny role. Its sustainability appraisals on the projects should provide much of the strategic information and it may only be left to local authorities to look at the detail when the applications come in. The DCLG's eco-town challenge panel is working with bidders and local authorities on improving schemes and firming up details of infrastructure provision and planning agreements.

Meanwhile, a draft planning policy statement on eco-towns, to be published by the end of July, is expected to give some indication of the sustainability appraisal process and more guidance to councils on how to handle schemes. However, the final selection of ten sites is unlikely to be announced until the end of October.

David Lock & Associates director David Lock, a progenitor of the eco-towns concept, claims that the schemes have gained credibility from the open competition at national level and questions the ability of planning authorities at local level to produce such innovative schemes. "The government has opened a Pandora's box of exciting proposals," he maintains.

Lock sees it as beneficial that the sites were not previously allocated for housing, as the value uplift resulting from planning permission can be captured more efficiently to fund infrastructure. He is looking for a fast-track planning procedure to scrutinise the schemes to achieve the government's targets for the first five schemes to be built by 2016 and the rest by 2020.

Lock suggests two different processes, depending on the extent of the development's likely effect. In his view, eco-town proposals with an impact beyond the local authority boundary could require a partial review of the regional spatial strategy (RSS), whereas those with only local impact would be considered as part of a sub-regional review and local development framework core strategy. This could be cut to a maximum of two years, he believes, as opposed to seven years using traditional planning timescales.

He accepts that a limited public inquiry would be needed at some stage. One of the easiest ways to adapt regional frameworks would be for the government to amend RSSs currently before it, he argues. "All but the RSS for the East of England have yet to be confirmed, so it would be a relatively easy job," he claims.

Others beg to differ. Amendments at this stage could bring the government into conflict with the South East England Regional Assembly, says planning manager David Payne. The Bordon-Whitehill eco-town in Hampshire falls broadly within the priorities of the South East Plan, now backed by an inquiry inspector, but the other two bids in the region do not comply with its priorities to fit development into existing urban areas. The assembly has been instructed to test alternative options that might achieve higher housing levels, but this has only just begun.

RTPI policy director Rynd Smith is concerned about the lack of a robust strategic planning framework to determine the location of eco-towns. "This could lead to long-running public inquiries, with everybody putting forward their own issues," he warned. "These were the kinds of inquiries that Kate Barker and Rod Eddington urged the government to avoid at all costs in their reviews of the planning system."

Oadby and Wigston Borough Council leader John Boyce questions the extent to which any eco-town can be a stand-alone settlement in transport terms. "The proposal on the edge of Leicester at Pennbury could have an effect on four surrounding districts," he points out. He argues that a joint core strategy should set out what developers need to achieve: "Some eco-towns can overcome environmental challenges. But they will require substantial contributions to support tram services."

The council will play the government's game if it has to. "If we are told that we have to have an eco-town then we want to make it the best, so we will not be prepared to compromise too soon," says Boyce. But he recognises that problems will arise if the council comes to the conclusion that no proposal will work and it is then imposed anyway. The way that schemes have come forward has polarised opinion rather than created a constructive dialogue, he complains.

Conscious that it may have to determine a planning application at a later stage, Stratford-on-Avon District Council has agreed to oppose the Middle Quinton eco-town scheme on the basis of information currently available. Officers warned that opposing the proposal outright at this stage would rule councillors out of participating in any consideration of a subsequent planning application, because they would appear to have predetermined it.

According to policy manager Colin Staves, the council sees an effective financial appraisal as essential in ensuring that Middle Quinton can support all infrastructure elements and contributions likely to be sought through a section 106 agreement, provide genuinely affordable homes and meet the exacting credentials set out in the prospectus. Adequate provision is needed for revenue support for community facilities and public transport services in the early days when they are not self-sustaining, he adds.

Barton Willmore partner Mark Stitch, who is advising developer St Modwen on the Middle Quinton project, argues that it would be possible to use powers under the new towns legislation to push through eco-towns. "The possibility was mentioned in last year's housing white paper," he points out.

However, Sitch stresses that the developers and their advisers are "committed to working with the local authorities and communities on the proposals". These are very much at concept stage and there will be further stages of public consultation, he insists. The company is prepared to make a significant contribution to funding the infrastructure, he confirms.

CASE STUDIES

East Hampshire: Bordon-Whitehall

The government's planning policy statement on eco-towns could help East Hampshire District Council impose tough environmental demands on the developers of a proposal at Bordon-Whitehill, according to chief executive Will Godfrey.

Unlike most other bids, the proposal for Ministry of Defence land is already being considered in the planning system and has general support from the local community. "We made it a priority in 2003 to start developing a planning framework for the site and pressed the South East England Regional Assembly to include it in the South East Plan," says Godfrey.

The version of the plan with the government suggests that a minimum of 2,500 homes should be built on the site, although the council is now proposing 5,500. "We drew up an issues and options report looking at developments of between 2,500 and 8,000 homes and concluded that the middle figure was the optimum in terms of creating a community," Godfrey explains.

The next stage is to appoint consultants to draw up a masterplan even before eco-towns came onto the agenda. The council's vision for the site was for a balance between housing, employment and leisure developments that would achieve a high level of environmental performance and fit the surrounding landscape.

Unlike other eco-towns, the site is not seen as free-standing. "We see the development as benefiting the neighbouring community, providing additional services that it cannot currently support and encouraging greater sustainability across a wider area," said Godfrey. By 2020, he believes, it should be well advanced.

Arun: Ford airfield

Councils are testing local opinion on eco-town bids while preparing their submissions to government using a number of approaches, though this has been handicapped by a lack of information and involvement from key parties.

This spring, Arun District Council held a six-day inquiry modelled on a parliamentary select committee into the proposal for an eco-town at Ford Airfield near Littlehampton. A panel chaired by former Crawley Borough Council head of planning Jim Redwood heard evidence from 100 witnesses representing a range of interest groups on the transport, economic, housing and biodiversity impacts on separate days.

The council secured the co-operation of the companies behind the scheme. However, representatives from public agencies including the DfT, the Highways Agency and Network Rail were not allowed to appear. "This was disappointing because one of the council's main areas of concern is the impact of the development on transport infrastructure," says Arun cabinet member for planning Ricky Bower.

The council is determined to ensure that the impact across the district is fully considered. It has secured involvement from the South East England Development Agency, which is concerned that its investment in nearby towns such as Bognor Regis might be undermined by a major new development.