The Government is due to announce the locations of a series of environmentally-friendly new towns, with just a few of the shortlisted "eco-town" sites expected to get the go-ahead.
The once-flagship project was intended to meet housing needs and tackle climate change, with as many as 10 settlements built by 2020.
But the scheme has been dogged by controversy and opposition from the Tories, countryside campaigners and local communities, with opponents mounting legal challenges to the selection process. Read more here...
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Eco town plan 'to be scaled down'
The government is expected to announce a scaled-down version of its grand plan to create up to 10 "eco towns".
Gordon Brown set out in 2007 to create hundreds of thousands of homes in "carbon neutral" communities as he campaigned to succeed Tony Blair. Read more here...
Gordon Brown set out in 2007 to create hundreds of thousands of homes in "carbon neutral" communities as he campaigned to succeed Tony Blair. Read more here...
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
£13,000 to park in an Eco Town
Drivers who want to live in an environmentally friendly "eco-town" will have to pay £13,000 for a parking space, Government documents reveal. The news comes as ministers prepare to unveil the sites for the first ever eco-towns.
Four sites in southern and central England which have received backing from their local councils are likely to go ahead to the planning stage - less than half the 10 eco-towns which were first mooted by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, nearly two years ago. Click for more...
Four sites in southern and central England which have received backing from their local councils are likely to go ahead to the planning stage - less than half the 10 eco-towns which were first mooted by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, nearly two years ago. Click for more...
Monday, 13 July 2009
Sites of first eco-towns to be named as campaigners warn of protest
Rural campaigners have warned of local protests throughout the country after Gordon Brown announces this week that he is to press ahead with his eco-towns project.
On Thursday the Government will finally name three or four sites in the South and South West that have been chosen to proceed in the first tranche of zero-carbon developments.
The Times has learnt that the front-runners are located in four Conservative councils: Whitehill-Bordon, East Hampshire; China Clay Community, St Austell, Cornwall; North Bicester, Cherwell District Council; and Rackheath, Greater Norwich. Each is said to have local authority backing and will therefore have an easier route through the formal planning consultation. Click for more...
Sunday's Observer - announcement this week?
Sunday Observer, 12th July, 2009
Ecotowns to get go-ahead despite local opposition
The projects in Norfolk and Cornwall are part of a green package to tackle the climate change threat
An abandoned Norfolk airfield and a cluster of Cornish china claypit villages are to become the first of a controversial new breed of "ecotowns", offering thousands of new homes built within a cutting-edge eco-friendly community.
The decision will be a blow to villagers who have campaigned against new developments at Rackheath, just outside Norwich, and St Austell in Cornwall. Only Rackheath got a top rating from an independent panel set up to judge the green credentials of the plans, yet it is one of three projects expected to be taken forward by ministers this week.
The ecotowns will form part of a package of green announcements this week which Gordon Brown will argue can help Britain climb out of recession and reduce the threat from climate change. A white paper will propose major changes to the way Britons travel, work and consume in order to meet targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Ministers will also set out plans to reduce pollution by investing in rail electrification - leading to faster trains - and in electric cars, as well as exploring new sources of fuel.
Households, however, may face increases of up to £200 a year in energy bills to help fund investment in renewable sources. An overhaul of the social tariff scheme that reduces fuel bills for the poorest is also expected, with an emphasis on spreading the costs of beating global warming so that those on low incomes do not bear an unfair burden.
Writing in the Observer today, Brown admits that adapting to climate change will not be painless but insists it is both necessary and potentially beneficial, by creating jobs in green industries. Ministers will argue that ecotowns offer test-beds for green ideas, from cutting back on car use to growing our own food, that could become standard in all new communities.
However, householders have voiced fears that nearby villages will be swamped and traffic increased: 71% of villagers polled by Rackheath parish council were against an ecotown. The site lies just outside the Norwich North parliamentary seat, where a byelection, triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Ian Gibson, will be held on 23 July. The Green candidate, Rupert Read, has warned that any carbon savings may be wiped out by plans to build a major road through the countryside north of the city to Norwich airport - funded by cash raised from the Rackheath project.
The St Austell site, where the ecohouses would mostly be tacked on to existing villages, has backing from local politicians but the Council for the Protection of Rural England in Cornwall has argued that the plans are "inappropriate". It argues that transport links are sparse and warns the project will be "doomed to failure" unless jobs are created for thousands of new inhabitants.
Brown originally promised to build 10 ecotowns with up to 200,000 carbon-neutral homes, but the 15-strong shortlist has been repeatedly whittled down as several projects withdrew or were hit by the housing slump: the Norfolk site was a late entry last year and not even on the original list for consideration.
Some of the sites have triggered furious local protests, with celebrities from Dame Judi Dench (campaigning against a proposed site in Middle Quinton, Warwickshire) to tennis player Tim Henman's father Anthony (opposing Weston Otmoor in Oxfordshire) spearheading opposition. The project was dealt a further blow by the Department for Communities and Local Government last year in a report that raised serious doubts over the financial viability of several of the shortlisted sites.
In a sign of the government's determination to salvage the scheme, John Healey, the housing minister, will insist that three projects have made the grade and that others could do so in future with more work on their proposals. The first ecotowns are due to be built by 2016 with the rest completed by 2020.
Tomorrow Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, will officially open south-east England's biggest onshore wind farm, Little Cheyne Court, near Lydd in Kent. Its 26 turbines have a total generating capacity of 60 megawatts, enough to power 30,000 homes.
Ecotowns to get go-ahead despite local opposition
The projects in Norfolk and Cornwall are part of a green package to tackle the climate change threat
An abandoned Norfolk airfield and a cluster of Cornish china claypit villages are to become the first of a controversial new breed of "ecotowns", offering thousands of new homes built within a cutting-edge eco-friendly community.
The decision will be a blow to villagers who have campaigned against new developments at Rackheath, just outside Norwich, and St Austell in Cornwall. Only Rackheath got a top rating from an independent panel set up to judge the green credentials of the plans, yet it is one of three projects expected to be taken forward by ministers this week.
The ecotowns will form part of a package of green announcements this week which Gordon Brown will argue can help Britain climb out of recession and reduce the threat from climate change. A white paper will propose major changes to the way Britons travel, work and consume in order to meet targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Ministers will also set out plans to reduce pollution by investing in rail electrification - leading to faster trains - and in electric cars, as well as exploring new sources of fuel.
Households, however, may face increases of up to £200 a year in energy bills to help fund investment in renewable sources. An overhaul of the social tariff scheme that reduces fuel bills for the poorest is also expected, with an emphasis on spreading the costs of beating global warming so that those on low incomes do not bear an unfair burden.
Writing in the Observer today, Brown admits that adapting to climate change will not be painless but insists it is both necessary and potentially beneficial, by creating jobs in green industries. Ministers will argue that ecotowns offer test-beds for green ideas, from cutting back on car use to growing our own food, that could become standard in all new communities.
However, householders have voiced fears that nearby villages will be swamped and traffic increased: 71% of villagers polled by Rackheath parish council were against an ecotown. The site lies just outside the Norwich North parliamentary seat, where a byelection, triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Ian Gibson, will be held on 23 July. The Green candidate, Rupert Read, has warned that any carbon savings may be wiped out by plans to build a major road through the countryside north of the city to Norwich airport - funded by cash raised from the Rackheath project.
The St Austell site, where the ecohouses would mostly be tacked on to existing villages, has backing from local politicians but the Council for the Protection of Rural England in Cornwall has argued that the plans are "inappropriate". It argues that transport links are sparse and warns the project will be "doomed to failure" unless jobs are created for thousands of new inhabitants.
Brown originally promised to build 10 ecotowns with up to 200,000 carbon-neutral homes, but the 15-strong shortlist has been repeatedly whittled down as several projects withdrew or were hit by the housing slump: the Norfolk site was a late entry last year and not even on the original list for consideration.
Some of the sites have triggered furious local protests, with celebrities from Dame Judi Dench (campaigning against a proposed site in Middle Quinton, Warwickshire) to tennis player Tim Henman's father Anthony (opposing Weston Otmoor in Oxfordshire) spearheading opposition. The project was dealt a further blow by the Department for Communities and Local Government last year in a report that raised serious doubts over the financial viability of several of the shortlisted sites.
In a sign of the government's determination to salvage the scheme, John Healey, the housing minister, will insist that three projects have made the grade and that others could do so in future with more work on their proposals. The first ecotowns are due to be built by 2016 with the rest completed by 2020.
Tomorrow Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, will officially open south-east England's biggest onshore wind farm, Little Cheyne Court, near Lydd in Kent. Its 26 turbines have a total generating capacity of 60 megawatts, enough to power 30,000 homes.
Sunday, 12 July 2009
High Court challenge to eco-town plans... With fairy cakes?
The controversial bid to build a 5,000-home eco-town on a former airfield is to be challenged in court. Arun District Council is concerned about the Government’s plans for the Ford Airfield site near Arundel.
Chief executive Ian Sumnall has lodged a legal challenge against the plans in the High Court. Arun has already earmarked £20,000 to pay for the legal fees.
The challenge centres around a single word change to the South East Plan where the word “test” was substituted for the word “facilitate” – changing the meaning of the document.
The council is worried that the change, which it says was made without “consultation, explanation or justification”, could mean that eco-towns could be forced on to local authorities without previous testing that has taken place through the council’s own planning document, the Local Development Framework.
The Government’s proposed ecotown scheme would see ten of the new communities built before 2020. The aim is to champion environmentally-friendly lifestyles, carbon-neutrality and energy efficiency. But the councils in each area where the towns have been proposed have objected to the plans.
Now skip jaygee's comments...
Chief executive Ian Sumnall has lodged a legal challenge against the plans in the High Court. Arun has already earmarked £20,000 to pay for the legal fees.
The challenge centres around a single word change to the South East Plan where the word “test” was substituted for the word “facilitate” – changing the meaning of the document.
The council is worried that the change, which it says was made without “consultation, explanation or justification”, could mean that eco-towns could be forced on to local authorities without previous testing that has taken place through the council’s own planning document, the Local Development Framework.
The Government’s proposed ecotown scheme would see ten of the new communities built before 2020. The aim is to champion environmentally-friendly lifestyles, carbon-neutrality and energy efficiency. But the councils in each area where the towns have been proposed have objected to the plans.
Now skip jaygee's comments...
Saturday, 11 July 2009
MP's pour cold water on the Eco Town plan - press release
Just got this...
West Sussex MPs Nick Herbert (Arundel & South Downs) and Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis & Littlehampton) have raised new doubts about plans to build an eco-town at Ford in the light of proposals to weaken the area’s flood defences.
Last month, the Environment Agency launched a public consultation on plans to reduce the standard of flood defences to the immediate south and east of the eco-town site, saying that current measures are unaffordable.
With an increased risk of flooding on the greenfield site, earmarked for at least 5,000 new houses, the MPs believe that the Environment Agency report further undermines the financial viability of the whole scheme.
The report will come as yet another blow to the Ford Airfield Vision Group (FAVG) who published their final proposals for an eco-town at Ford, including a flood defence plan, back in August 2008.
The FAVG assumed that the flood defences to the south and east of the proposed eco-town would provide protection against at least a 1-in-200 year event. However, the Environment Agency is now proposing to abandon the 1-in-200 year level of protection, a move that will significantly increase the risk of flooding.
On the west bank of the River Arun between the A259 and the Ford railway bridge the protection will be reduced to a 1-in-66 year level, and at Climping there is to be no formal flood defence protection at all. The Environment Agency says it can no longer afford the high cost of maintaining the defences.
Nick Herbert commented: “It can’t make sense for a Government department to be proposing to build a new town on a floodplain while, at the same time, a Government agency is planning to pare back on the flood defences. The financial viability of this scheme was already in considerable doubt before this report was published, and will be even worse if there are now to be additional flood defence costs.
“The case for the eco-town continues to fall apart. The Government should drop Ford from the shortlist and allow Arun District Council to pursue its own plans for meeting the housing needs of local people in the district.”
Nick Gibb commented: “This is a classic case of bureaucratic confusion. One part of the Government is recommending abandoning a crucial part of the Sussex coastline, which we have to fight against. Another part of this Government is proposing to build 5,000 houses in the area that would be more liable to flooding as a result of abandoning the coastline. We have to fight that too. Perhaps Ministers and their quangos should talk to one another.”
The Government is expected to make an announcement on the final shortlist of potential eco-towns before Parliament rises for the summer recess on 21 July.
West Sussex MPs Nick Herbert (Arundel & South Downs) and Nick Gibb (Bognor Regis & Littlehampton) have raised new doubts about plans to build an eco-town at Ford in the light of proposals to weaken the area’s flood defences.
Last month, the Environment Agency launched a public consultation on plans to reduce the standard of flood defences to the immediate south and east of the eco-town site, saying that current measures are unaffordable.
With an increased risk of flooding on the greenfield site, earmarked for at least 5,000 new houses, the MPs believe that the Environment Agency report further undermines the financial viability of the whole scheme.
The report will come as yet another blow to the Ford Airfield Vision Group (FAVG) who published their final proposals for an eco-town at Ford, including a flood defence plan, back in August 2008.
The FAVG assumed that the flood defences to the south and east of the proposed eco-town would provide protection against at least a 1-in-200 year event. However, the Environment Agency is now proposing to abandon the 1-in-200 year level of protection, a move that will significantly increase the risk of flooding.
On the west bank of the River Arun between the A259 and the Ford railway bridge the protection will be reduced to a 1-in-66 year level, and at Climping there is to be no formal flood defence protection at all. The Environment Agency says it can no longer afford the high cost of maintaining the defences.
Nick Herbert commented: “It can’t make sense for a Government department to be proposing to build a new town on a floodplain while, at the same time, a Government agency is planning to pare back on the flood defences. The financial viability of this scheme was already in considerable doubt before this report was published, and will be even worse if there are now to be additional flood defence costs.
“The case for the eco-town continues to fall apart. The Government should drop Ford from the shortlist and allow Arun District Council to pursue its own plans for meeting the housing needs of local people in the district.”
Nick Gibb commented: “This is a classic case of bureaucratic confusion. One part of the Government is recommending abandoning a crucial part of the Sussex coastline, which we have to fight against. Another part of this Government is proposing to build 5,000 houses in the area that would be more liable to flooding as a result of abandoning the coastline. We have to fight that too. Perhaps Ministers and their quangos should talk to one another.”
The Government is expected to make an announcement on the final shortlist of potential eco-towns before Parliament rises for the summer recess on 21 July.
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Eco-town-ology
The Homes and Communities Agency Academy publishes a lovely expensive looking proposal to establish what looks to me like a new academic discipline of Eco Town Studies. The proposal for an "Eco-towns learning capacity building programme" to "build skills amongst those professionals that are necessary for the sucessful development of eco-towns" looks like a lovely future career path for people currently working at the Homes and Communities Agency Academy.
http://showcase.hcaacademy.co.uk/files/general/eco-town-report.pdf
At a time when both main political parties are promising a 'bonfire of the Qangos', it seems extraordinary to me that one such unelected body should come out and stake a claim to forge yet more links, Qangos, study groups, stakeholder groups, learning agents, seminar programmes - and of course some lovely publically funded study trips to attractive European destinations. And all based on building stupid new towns on green fields.
And of course they will see themselves as the future - lumping us together as sceptics who are insufficiently committed to change!
http://showcase.hcaacademy.co.uk/files/general/eco-town-report.pdf
At a time when both main political parties are promising a 'bonfire of the Qangos', it seems extraordinary to me that one such unelected body should come out and stake a claim to forge yet more links, Qangos, study groups, stakeholder groups, learning agents, seminar programmes - and of course some lovely publically funded study trips to attractive European destinations. And all based on building stupid new towns on green fields.
And of course they will see themselves as the future - lumping us together as sceptics who are insufficiently committed to change!
Heading for a showdown
Grant Shapps telling the Commons that the whole programme should be scrapped, and that Developers are 'running scared'.
John Healey saying that he will make an announcement on the remainng sites before the Summer recess.
But what on earth does he mean when he says:
"The links that any developer or company may have with any of these eco-town proposals, with any political party are simply not a material consideration for the decision I take and won't be."
http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2009-07-07-Shapps-Developers-running-scared-from-eco-towns
John Healey saying that he will make an announcement on the remainng sites before the Summer recess.
But what on earth does he mean when he says:
"The links that any developer or company may have with any of these eco-town proposals, with any political party are simply not a material consideration for the decision I take and won't be."
http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2009-07-07-Shapps-Developers-running-scared-from-eco-towns
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Ford Eco-Town to be discussed
A public meeting will be held at 7pm on Monday July 6th at the St Philip Howard Catholic School, Elm Grove, Barnham. The Joint Downland Area Committee will also look at flooding, health issues and how the new National Park will affect the area. Be there if you care...
An ill wind blows no good
Question marks over their viability threaten to make eco-towns undeliverable. Ahead of a government announcement on their future next month, Chris Ames investigates. Click here...
Monday, 29 June 2009
Friday, 26 June 2009
Eco-town policy slip sparks court action
The government is being taken to court over the eco-towns policy in the South East Plan. Arun District Council has lodged a legal challenge to the policy, which states that councils should "facilitate" proposals agreed for growth points and eco-towns. It previously said they should merely "test" eco-town proposals,...
Subscriber content only - want to read on?
We'll have more on this later today...
Subscriber content only - want to read on?
We'll have more on this later today...
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Is this the first Eco Town Scheme Obituary?
http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/whatever-happened-to-eco-towns/5204103.article
This is a fantastic article by Damian Arnold - the quotations from sources close to the DCLG simply echo what we have been saying all along.
Even the Chief Exec of the Town and Country Planning Association is now hoping for just 5 towns to be announced. But the article suggests (in what sounds like a preparatory leak of policy to me) that the Homes and Communities Agency will assume responsibility for the whole programme and then quietly substitute existing urban extensions for the greenfield sites on the current list.
Not quite time to pop the champagne, but is it worth popping a couple of bottles in the chiller to be ready?
This is a fantastic article by Damian Arnold - the quotations from sources close to the DCLG simply echo what we have been saying all along.
Even the Chief Exec of the Town and Country Planning Association is now hoping for just 5 towns to be announced. But the article suggests (in what sounds like a preparatory leak of policy to me) that the Homes and Communities Agency will assume responsibility for the whole programme and then quietly substitute existing urban extensions for the greenfield sites on the current list.
Not quite time to pop the champagne, but is it worth popping a couple of bottles in the chiller to be ready?
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