CPRE calls for radical eco-town rethink

Michael Donnelly, PlanningResource, 30 June 2008

The charity says the government should focus on one or two truly environmentally sound schemes and scrap sub-standard proposals.

Marina Pacheco, CPRE’s head of planning, said: “To begin with, CPRE supported the eco-towns initiative. Who wouldn’t object to exemplar schemes built to high environment standards which provide the affordable homes the nation desperately needs?

”But we now believe we have been led astray.  What will this programme will deliver? It appears increasingly to be about spin with very little substance. The creation of the eco-town Challenge Panel looks increasingly like a supreme example of spin-mongering.”

CPRE’s key concerns about shortlisted eco-towns proposals are as follows:

·       due to their location most eco-towns shortlisted are unlikely to work in transport terms and risk being car dependent housing estates with residents stranded in the face of continued fuel price rises;

·       most of the sites are predominantly greenfield and include farmland of the highest agricultural quality; two sites actually lie in the Green Belt;

·       three eco-towns are proposed for the East of England where water supply and sewerage have already reached maximum capacity;

·       most of the proposed eco-towns go against local plans agreed with communities and therefore have no local democratic mandate;

·       site-selection is based on arbitrary, mainly developer-led, bids rather than sound planning in the wider public interest;

·       communities are being asked their views on schemes about which little firm information is available, apart from the location;

·       there is a worrying lack of evidence to demonstrate that schemes will offer truly sustainable models of living and working;

·       the government’s insistence that eco-towns should be freestanding makes no sense since most new housing will be in and around towns where infrastructure needs can be more easily met.

Marina Pacheco concluded: “We are urging the government to go back to the drawing board.  Many of these shortlisted schemes are recycled, failed proposals. 

“The government insists that eco-towns must be freestanding new settlements. But by refusing to look at alternatives, such as eco-quarters and redevelopment sites already coming through the planning pipeline it is missing a golden opportunity.’