The leaflets with the petition are on their way - with help from various parties I think we've done over half of Climping now.
I dropped some leaflets off at Baillifscourt Hotel - I'll follow up and get the manager's take on the situation - the developers criticise the tourist industry. To me it's a worthwhile thing and brings a lot of pleasure to visitors to this lovely part of the country.
Saturday 3 May 2008
Climping Village Hall - the next public meeting
Following the packed public meeting in Yapton on 1 May, there will be another opportunity to meet the CAFE team, hear details and ask questions about the Eco-Con proposals at 6.30pm on Thursday 8 May at Climping Village Hall.
Come along and get involved!
Come along and get involved!
Thursday 1 May 2008
Meeting packs Yapton & Ford Village Hall
Hundreds of people from Climping, Ford, Yapton, Walberton and beyond attended the first public meeting organised by the Campaign Against Ford Eco-town on May 1st. The village hall was packed to capacity - there wasn't a chair left - not even for Terry Knott campaign chairman and his dog.
Terry, presented informative facts, which were backed up with his core C.A.F.E. team, Victoria Newman, Geoff Dixon and Derek Waller. The evening ended with a publicly driven question and answer session. When the audience were asked if they were ready to surrender and have their bellies tickled, go for a compromise or fight against this Eco-town! All hands were raised... May Day in Yapton might not be the same again... Thanks to all who attended!
NEWS: Eco Town opponents get ready for debate
WHILE one side of the Ford eco-town debate is getting ready to show its plans to the public, the other is claiming that they are anything but green.
The Ford Airfield Vision Group is taking its plans on a roadshow, and launching a website, which goes live on May 25, and is inviting feedback from residents.
Members of Communities Against Ford Eco-town, CAFE, however, say that 87 per cent of the town, billed as carbon neutral and environmentally friendly, would be built on greenfield sites. Click to read more...
The Ford Airfield Vision Group is taking its plans on a roadshow, and launching a website, which goes live on May 25, and is inviting feedback from residents.
Members of Communities Against Ford Eco-town, CAFE, however, say that 87 per cent of the town, billed as carbon neutral and environmentally friendly, would be built on greenfield sites. Click to read more...
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Ford eco-town enquiries
All enquiries about Ford eco-town initially are being directed to Arun's website - www.arun.gov.uk/ecotown - which includes background information, an e-form for comments and contact details for the Council, the Government and the local residents’ campaign (CAFÉ - Campaign Against Ford Eco-town).
Brief background
Ford has been chosen by the Government as one of 15 locations across the country that could be used to site an ‘eco-town’ of at least 5,000 new houses.
Two separate proposals have been put forward - known as the Ford Vision Group and the Ford Enterprise Hub - and could now be considered as a result.
At no stage has the Council been consulted about the decision to shortlist Ford as a site for an eco-town: the Government made the decision in private and without consulting either the Council or Arun residents.
As a result of their concerns that the proposals have by-passed the planning system and that the public have not been given a chance to voice their views, the Council is setting up a special Select Committee that will conduct a technical investigation into the proposals in public.
Starting on the 27 May 2008, the Committee - comprising eight Councillors and an independent planning advisor - will hear evidence from all interested parties (including local residents and the promoters of the two schemes). This process will be held in public and is expected to last around a week.
The Committee’s findings will then be presented to the Full Council on 30 June. The Council will then determine, using the findings as a basis for debate, what comments to pass on to the Government.
How to submit comments/contact details
If you would like your comments to be considered by the Select Committee, please log onto www.arun.gov.uk/ecotown and fill out the electronic form (on the ‘Your Input’ link).
If you do not have access to internet, please send your comments to:
Eco Town Working Group,
Arun District Council,
Maltravers Road,
Littlehampton,
West Sussex,
BN17 5LF.
Please note - comments will be fed directly into the Committee’s enquiry without response.
If you have a general enquiry regarding Ford eco-town please see the frequently asked questions page on the website, or call 01903 737888 or email ecotown@arun.gov.uk.
Residents can also send their comments and questions direct to the Government at ecotowns@communities.gsi.gov.uk or log onto www.communities.gov.uk.
Comments must be submitted by 30 June 2008.
The local residents’ group ‘CAFÉ’ (the Campaign Against Ford Eco-town) is being administered by Susan West, who can be contacted on 01903 714528 or emailed at susanwest1@btinternet.com. This is not part of the Arun Council work in relation to the Eco Town but an independent residents’ action group.
Details of the two proposals for the site at Ford can be found at:
www.fordairfieldecotown.co.uk
www.fordenterprisehub.com
Brief background
Ford has been chosen by the Government as one of 15 locations across the country that could be used to site an ‘eco-town’ of at least 5,000 new houses.
Two separate proposals have been put forward - known as the Ford Vision Group and the Ford Enterprise Hub - and could now be considered as a result.
At no stage has the Council been consulted about the decision to shortlist Ford as a site for an eco-town: the Government made the decision in private and without consulting either the Council or Arun residents.
As a result of their concerns that the proposals have by-passed the planning system and that the public have not been given a chance to voice their views, the Council is setting up a special Select Committee that will conduct a technical investigation into the proposals in public.
Starting on the 27 May 2008, the Committee - comprising eight Councillors and an independent planning advisor - will hear evidence from all interested parties (including local residents and the promoters of the two schemes). This process will be held in public and is expected to last around a week.
The Committee’s findings will then be presented to the Full Council on 30 June. The Council will then determine, using the findings as a basis for debate, what comments to pass on to the Government.
How to submit comments/contact details
If you would like your comments to be considered by the Select Committee, please log onto www.arun.gov.uk/ecotown and fill out the electronic form (on the ‘Your Input’ link).
If you do not have access to internet, please send your comments to:
Eco Town Working Group,
Arun District Council,
Maltravers Road,
Littlehampton,
West Sussex,
BN17 5LF.
Please note - comments will be fed directly into the Committee’s enquiry without response.
If you have a general enquiry regarding Ford eco-town please see the frequently asked questions page on the website, or call 01903 737888 or email ecotown@arun.gov.uk.
Residents can also send their comments and questions direct to the Government at ecotowns@communities.gsi.gov.uk or log onto www.communities.gov.uk.
Comments must be submitted by 30 June 2008.
The local residents’ group ‘CAFÉ’ (the Campaign Against Ford Eco-town) is being administered by Susan West, who can be contacted on 01903 714528 or emailed at susanwest1@btinternet.com. This is not part of the Arun Council work in relation to the Eco Town but an independent residents’ action group.
Details of the two proposals for the site at Ford can be found at:
www.fordairfieldecotown.co.uk
www.fordenterprisehub.com
Tuesday 29 April 2008
This week's press release!
Tuesday 29 April 2008
87 per cent of eco-town site is greenfield land
Local campaign group Communities Against Ford Eco-Town (CAFE) has called on the Government to admit that the proposed eco-town at Ford would be built almost entirely on greenfield land.
In its ‘Eco Town Bid’ of August 2007, the Ford Airfield Vision Group said: “Ford Airfield is a 360 hectare site comprising brownfield land.”
The original proposals of Ford Enterprise Hub conveyed the same message. They stated that: “Ford is a very large, previously developed site which should come forward in plans for housing before greenfield sites”.
However, figures in the Government’s own consultation paper, entitled ‘Eco-towns: Living a Greener Future’, confirm that only 44 hectares of the 350 hectare site is brownfield land – less than 13 per cent of the total.
The same document, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), says that eco-towns should be sited “where appropriate, making good use of brownfield ... land”.
Despite this, the eco-town proposals for Ford were shortlisted by Housing Minister Caroline Flint on 3 April, along with another 14 sites around the country.
CAFE has also slammed the way in which figures have been presented in the Government’s consultation document, in which DCLG say: “The 350 hectares site includes 110 acres of brownfield …”
Campaigners believe that the Government’s use of two different measures is designed to give the impression that one-third of the site consists of brownfield land.
CAFE Co-Chairman and Yapton resident Terry Knott said: “The Government’s proposal to site a so-called eco-town at Ford is deeply flawed. It is not ecological. Building up to 20,000 houses and concreting over a large area of prime, grade one arable land, when food shortages stare us in the face, defies all logic.”
Climping resident and CAFE campaigner Geoff Dixon commented: “This eco-town would cover the whole area between the three villages of Climping, Yapton and Ford in houses and offices. So far as we can see, just about all of it is on the farmers' fields - it doesn't seem very green to us to cover the lot in concrete!”
Arundel & South Downs MP Nick Herbert commented: “The ‘eco-town’ is an ‘eco-con’. There is nothing remotely ‘eco’ about building thousands of houses on greenfield land.”
“Nick Gibb and I have written to the Minister to ask why the consultation paper contains information that is misleading and to ask the Government to confirm that if there was an eco-town at Ford it would be built almost entirely on a greenfield site.”
Bognor Regis & Littlehampton MP Nick Gibb added: “Ministers need to come clean and be honest with the public about this development. It’s quite clear that the majority of the housing will be on greenfield land not industrial land – there’s nothing ‘eco’ about that.”
Ends
87 per cent of eco-town site is greenfield land
Local campaign group Communities Against Ford Eco-Town (CAFE) has called on the Government to admit that the proposed eco-town at Ford would be built almost entirely on greenfield land.
In its ‘Eco Town Bid’ of August 2007, the Ford Airfield Vision Group said: “Ford Airfield is a 360 hectare site comprising brownfield land.”
The original proposals of Ford Enterprise Hub conveyed the same message. They stated that: “Ford is a very large, previously developed site which should come forward in plans for housing before greenfield sites”.
However, figures in the Government’s own consultation paper, entitled ‘Eco-towns: Living a Greener Future’, confirm that only 44 hectares of the 350 hectare site is brownfield land – less than 13 per cent of the total.
The same document, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), says that eco-towns should be sited “where appropriate, making good use of brownfield ... land”.
Despite this, the eco-town proposals for Ford were shortlisted by Housing Minister Caroline Flint on 3 April, along with another 14 sites around the country.
CAFE has also slammed the way in which figures have been presented in the Government’s consultation document, in which DCLG say: “The 350 hectares site includes 110 acres of brownfield …”
Campaigners believe that the Government’s use of two different measures is designed to give the impression that one-third of the site consists of brownfield land.
CAFE Co-Chairman and Yapton resident Terry Knott said: “The Government’s proposal to site a so-called eco-town at Ford is deeply flawed. It is not ecological. Building up to 20,000 houses and concreting over a large area of prime, grade one arable land, when food shortages stare us in the face, defies all logic.”
Climping resident and CAFE campaigner Geoff Dixon commented: “This eco-town would cover the whole area between the three villages of Climping, Yapton and Ford in houses and offices. So far as we can see, just about all of it is on the farmers' fields - it doesn't seem very green to us to cover the lot in concrete!”
Arundel & South Downs MP Nick Herbert commented: “The ‘eco-town’ is an ‘eco-con’. There is nothing remotely ‘eco’ about building thousands of houses on greenfield land.”
“Nick Gibb and I have written to the Minister to ask why the consultation paper contains information that is misleading and to ask the Government to confirm that if there was an eco-town at Ford it would be built almost entirely on a greenfield site.”
Bognor Regis & Littlehampton MP Nick Gibb added: “Ministers need to come clean and be honest with the public about this development. It’s quite clear that the majority of the housing will be on greenfield land not industrial land – there’s nothing ‘eco’ about that.”
Ends
Public Meeting - Thursday May 1st
C.A.F.E. have organised a local public meeting in Yapton & Ford Village Hall at 6pm on Thursday 1 May. All welcome!
Frustratingly most people I know don't get home from work until after 6pm - this is another meeting I will not be able to attend because of poor organisation!
Frustratingly most people I know don't get home from work until after 6pm - this is another meeting I will not be able to attend because of poor organisation!
Sunday 27 April 2008
Google Map overlay...
This is a work in progress as I plan to add more. Click here to view map of Ford Eco Town. I have also added it to the sidebar.
It's going to be BIG!!!
Quite a few people I speak to, think the eco-town at Ford is going to be built on the runway, where the market and boot sale is held. What shocks them is the actual size - 5,000 houses would devour the top grade farmland from Ford station down to the A259 at Climping.
In this image the Ford Eco Town boundary has been rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise and overlaid in a map of Littlehampton and Rustington- Click here to see it!
LETTER: Other Eco-Town protests ahead of us...
THE proposed Eco-Town at Ford would be an absolute disaster for our community. Of course we need more affordable housing, and we must all act to stop climate change, but this does not have to be achieved by building an Eco-Town on a greenfield site.
If the project goes ahead, the good agricultural land which is currently in use and makes up the vast majority of the site, would be lost. Click to read more...
Cathy Taylor, Park Cottages, North End Road, Yaptonn
If the project goes ahead, the good agricultural land which is currently in use and makes up the vast majority of the site, would be lost. Click to read more...
COMMENT: Friends of the Earth
Commenting on the shortlist for a number of Eco Towns that the Government is planning to build across England, Paul de Zylva of Friends of the Earth said:
“With proper involvement of local communities and stringent standards, the Government's new eco-towns could provide an inspiring blueprint for low-carbon living - but they will be a drop in the ocean of the Government's wider house building programme. All new homes must be built to the highest green standards.”
“And the question remains over how Ministers will reduce emissions from existing homes - which currently account for over a quarter of all the UK's carbon impact. The Government must prioritise this area and make it cheaper and easier for people to green their homes, and invest in energy saving and clean renewable technologies such as solar panels.”
“With proper involvement of local communities and stringent standards, the Government's new eco-towns could provide an inspiring blueprint for low-carbon living - but they will be a drop in the ocean of the Government's wider house building programme. All new homes must be built to the highest green standards.”
“And the question remains over how Ministers will reduce emissions from existing homes - which currently account for over a quarter of all the UK's carbon impact. The Government must prioritise this area and make it cheaper and easier for people to green their homes, and invest in energy saving and clean renewable technologies such as solar panels.”
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