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ECO-TOWN DECISION IN TWO WEEKS—OR THE NEW YEAR
3 December 2009
A GOVERNMENT announcement on whether the proposed 6,000-home Middle Quinton eco-town at Long Marston should go ahead is expected the week after next. But if it doesn’t come in that week, the likelihood is that it won’t come until the New Year.
Preston Witts
Stratford Herald
This was the message to the Herald from Whitehall this week as Stratford-on-Avon District Council found itself grappling with an entanglement of housing issues—all of them potentially explosive and all of them vital to the future of the district as a whole.
With a decision on the eco-town still pending, the council’s planning committee will on Monday consider an application for a leisure village on a large chunk of the eco-town site. Officials have already recommended that the application—by St Modwen, which is also a co-promoter of the eco-town—should be granted.
The leisure village proposal, which controversially includes 500 permanent homes as well as 150 holiday homes and 150 holiday self-catering lodges, will eventually be withdrawn if the eco-town looks...
Read More...
Healey unveils second wave of eco-town sites
1 December 2009
Housing and planning minister John Healey has announced proposals for a second wave of eco-towns.
Michael Donnelly
PlanningResource
In July, Healey announced that four locations had made it through the selection process to become eco-towns and today he announced that a further nine local authorities are considering plans to develop new eco-town developments.
The potential second wave eco-town proposals are:
- Schemes at Shoreham Harbour in West Sussex and Northstowe in Cambridgeshire
- Five authorities and partnerships, covering ten locations in Taunton (Monkton Heathfield and Corneytrowe), Yeovil, Leeds City Region (Aire Valley, York North West, North Kirklees and Bradford-Shipley canal corridor), Lincoln (Lincoln Area and Gainsborough) and Coventry.
- Councils in Cornwall and the... Read More...
MP welcomes recommendation to scrap eco-town proposal
5 October 2009
THE Cotswolds’ MP has welcomed the publication of a report recommending the scrapping of a proposal to build a 6,000-home eco-town at Long Marston, near Mickleton.
Simon Crump
Cotswold Journal
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown spoke after independent planning inspectors, who conducted an in-depth examination of the proposal , published the Examination in Public of the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy which concluded the eco-town would be unsustainable.
The government will make the final decision, as to whether the plan should be scrapped, after evaluating the report.
Mr Clifton-Brown said the report’s findings would make a decision to pursue the scheme “extraordinarily perverse”.
Development companies, St Modwen and The Bird Group, propose building the eco-town that would be called Middle Quinton.
Since it was first published last year, the plan has met with massive opposition from nearby residents who fear extra traffic generated by... Read More...
Planning panel dismisses eco-town plans
30 September 2009
The proposed location of an eco-town near Stratford upon Avon would make it unsustainable, according to planning inspectors.
Emily Twinch
Inside Housing
A report from the public examination of the draft west midlands regional spatial strategy – setting out how much development there should be in the area up until 2026 - was published earlier this week.
The panel decided the area needs 398,000 homes - more than the 365,000 proposed by the West Midlands Regional Assembly in the strategy.
The panel members said the plans for the Middle Quinton eco-town would provide more homes than they suggest, but concluded: ‘The location of this proposed eco-town would render it of very doubtful sustainability.’
Protestors against the eco-town say affordable housing is needed across the area not in one concentrated remote location.
The panel also decided ‘advantages in terms of green construction’ would not be ‘greater than those... Read More...
Govt report reveals public concerns about UK eco towns
21 August 2009
The UK's new eco towns, four of which have been formally approved, may not be the best way to provide sustainable new housing, according to a new report.
Source: Property Wire
There is also a concern that they are by-passing the planning system, says a report from consultants Scott Wilson which gathers the responses of 1,200 people and organisations to the government's flagship plans.
Overall the report says that people recognise the need for both more sustainable communities and of the need for more housing. But they do wonder if creating eco towns is the best way to achieve sustainable goals and point out that spending money on existing housing needs greater thought.
A second major concern is that they will be waved through the planning system. 'There was also concern that eco-town developments might detract from local planning and regeneration objectives,' the report says.
The public also raised concerns over locations chosen for eco towns and raised questions about local needs,... Read More...
MP urges people not to give up fighting eco-town plan
22 July 2009
VALE MP Peter Luff has urged people not to give up the fight against plans for a 6,000-home eco-town near Long Marston as the government announced the first wave of sites to get the go ahead.
Daniel Fawbert Mills
Cotswold Journal
Mr Luff was speaking after Housing Minister, John Healey, announced today that the Whitehill-Bordon site in Hampshire, St Austell in Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk and North West Bicester in Oxfordshire were the first wave of eco-towns across the country to go forward to the planning stage.
The local Middle Quinton proposal, which sits on the border of Wychavon and Stratford, is being considered as part of the West Midlands Spatial Strategy (RSS) and was therefore not part of the government’s latest announcement.
Mr Healey has however called for at least six ‘second wave areas’, which could include Middle Quinton, prompting Mr Luff to urge those opposed to the plans to remain vigilant.
“This news should sound the death knell for... Read More...
Four sites to become 'eco towns'
16 July 2009
The locations of four new "eco-towns" have been announced as part of scaled-down government plans.
They are Rackheath, Norfolk; north west Bicester, Oxfordshire; Whitehill Bordon, East Hants; and the China Clay Community near St Austell, Cornwall.
Gordon Brown had announced plans to create hundreds of thousands of homes in 10 "carbon neutral" communities.
But the zero-carbon developments - some earmarked on open countryside - have caused protests and a legal challenge.
The proposals, which still need local planning approval, included 4,000 homes on the disused airfield at Rackheath, near Norwich, and 5,000 in the Cornwall town.
Construction would be under way by 2016, later than originally envisaged.
Housing Minister John Healey wants to see a second wave of at least six eco-towns and is making up to £5m available for councils to conduct further planning work on proposals.
Rossington near Doncaster... Read More...
The eco-towns saga: how not to win friends
16 July 2009
Just how did the clever idea of a showcase for building green communities turn into a policy exercise of such embarrassment?
By Beverley Firth
Building
The government will reveal which eco-towns are to get the go-ahead later today, when the eco-towns planning policy statement is published. Making major announcements just as the holiday season gets into top gear isn't new, but few anticipated policy announcements have had such a troubled history.
What began as a novel and attractive concept soon fell into disrepute and unpopularity through what can only be described as poor handling. Eco-towns could have given the government a way of showcasing a new way of living, as the garden cities did in the 1960s, with innovation in technology and renewable energy. What has emerged instead has won few friends, largely because of the suspicion that schemes would somehow get planning approval without proper local scrutiny. Essentially it is a missed opportunity.
The likely upshot will... Read More...
Ecotowns to get go-ahead despite local opposition
12 July 2009
The projects in Norfolk and Cornwall are part of a green package to tackle the climate change threat
Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
The Observer
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... Read More...
Eco-town blasted by opposition parties
9 July 2009
THE Government’s eco-town programme, which includes plans for a 6,000-home eco-town near Long Marston, has been labelled ‘a sham’ and ‘a gimmick’ in a blistering attack by both main opposition parties this week.
Daniel Fawbert Mills
Evesham Journal
THE government’s eco-town programme, which includes plans for a 6,000 home eco-town near Long Marston, has been labelled ‘a sham’ and ‘a gimmick’ in a blistering attack by both main opposition parties this week.
Speaking exclusively to The Journal, shadow housing minister Grant Shapps confirmed the tories would not support the programme should they take office at the next election, and claimed the project would do more harm to the environment than good.
Mr Shapps said: “Gordon Brown’s eco-town programme is in a shambles, with developers abandoning the process, a series of judicial reviews, the timetable being extended and extended, and local opposition growing to these unsustainable and environmentally damaging proposals.
... Read More...
Latest Entries
- ECO-TOWN DECISION IN TWO WEEKS—OR THE NEW YEAR
- Healey unveils second wave of eco-town sites
- MP welcomes recommendation to scrap eco-town proposal
- Planning panel dismisses eco-town plans
- Govt report reveals public concerns about UK eco towns
- MP urges people not to give up fighting eco-town plan
- Four sites to become 'eco towns'
- The eco-towns saga: how not to win friends
- Ecotowns to get go-ahead despite local opposition
- Eco-town blasted by opposition parties