Eco-town media links

Local and national press media links on the ongoing eco-town process - updated 15 October 2008

Report slams government's lack of transport investment

Building 14 October, 2008

Institution of Civil Engineers says government needs coherent plan including high-speed rail links

The Institution of Civil Engineers has called for a raft of measures to boost public transport including extra high-speed rail links on the east and west coasts.

In its annual State of the Nation Report, the body criticised the government for failing to create a coherent investment plan for transport, which it said was vital for supporting the economy and tackling climate change.

Key recommendations include beefing up the UK’s commercial ports, ring-fencing part of transport revenue for public transport improvements and easing the rail system with extra coastal links – also a Conservative Party policy.

Urban authorities should be given greater powers, similar to those held by Transport for London, to speed up the planning process, it adds.

ICE president David Orr said the failure to create a long-term strategy could threaten transport projects such as Crossrail and the Thameslink upgrade as large-scale projects could become “unfit for purpose and unsuited for the future needs of the nation.”

Housing programmes, eco-towns and wider economic growth would also be affected by a failure to take action, he said.

Bizarre proposals for eco towns

Western Morning News 14 October 2008

I read in an article published on the Internet that residents of proposed eco towns could face strict monitoring of their travel habits, home insulation, and even wasted food, to ensure that they are truly living a "green" lifestyle.

Experts advising the Government on its plans to build up to 10 eco towns by 2020 have asked ministers to toughen environmental standards for the eco towns with monitoring to ensure that their carbon footprint is three times smaller than the British average.

The recommendation is that there should be detailed scrutiny of the number of trips residents make by car, and the types of waste produced by households and businesses.

Techniques for monitoring residents could include checking the ecological footprint of the diet of 100 randomly-selected residents, and calculating CO2 emissions from transport movements.

Also, thermographic cameras should be used to check which eco town homes lose heat, according to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE).

The monitoring plans are part of the proposed standards for the Government's flagship housing programme, which has been criticised for failing to demand the highest levels of sustainability.

CABE is also calling for all homes to be powered by renewable energy, with gas supply only available as a backup.

It said there should be at least 50 dwellings per hectare (2.5 acres), rising to 100 in the centre, and that retailers should provide plenty of products with a low meat and dairy content, in line with studies that showed a significant reduction in animal product meals could cut the ecological footprint of food by 60 per cent.

"Consumer goods account for 14 per cent of an individual's ecological footprint and the target should be to halve the impact from this," the report said.

CABE and Bioregional, the company that initiated the low-energy BedZed housing estate in south London, want the Government to ensure that the carbon footprint of eco towns is no larger than allowed under the principles of "one-planet living".

CABE's proposed rules are stricter than the latest Government guidance on eco towns and come in advance of the publication soon of draft planning policy setting out the levels of sustainability and environmental soundness of the new developments. These proposals are all very good in theory - but when looked at alongside the other proposals that only electric or dual propulsion system cars should be allowed, and that the residents should all use public transport or walk to work and to shop, it all starts to look quite bizarre.

Would we be creating an Orwellian police state? Has anyone from the Government's expert advisers been to Cornwall to look at the terrain of Clay Country or the topography of Cornwall?

One of the cornerstones of democracy that I have always believed in is local solutions, locally worked out by local people for the benefit of local communities.

What may be feasible in other less hilly, sunnier areas of England which have better access to transport and other services needs to be considered very carefully, with full consultation with local people, before we get too far down this road - or perhaps the Government has one of President Bush's' advisers designing a "road map" for it.

John Stocker

PRP launches final report on European eco-towns study

24dash.com 14 October 2008

Today’s current economic crisis provides an ideal opportunity to re-evaluate and identify new and better procurement methods essential for restarting the UK’s struggling house building market in the UK – a key conclusion drawn by PRP, URBED and Design for Homes at the launch of their research paper, Beyond Eco-towns, Applying the Lessons from Europe.

The research, sponsored by Scott Wilson, The Guinness Partnership and Grainger plc, analyses how some of today’s exemplary European Eco-town projects have successfully delivered high quality and sustainable housing.

PRP chairman, Andy von Bradsky, commented: “House building in the UK has stalled due to the credit crunch and it will not recover adequately unless there is a rapid rethinking of how procurement works here. There is a disconnection between the planning process and the means of delivery in the UK.

“Our research however reveals that there are immediate and far more collaborative ways of working, which are more efficient, that can yield better results more quickly than we’ve ever managed to achieve here. We must act now if we are to save the house building sector from further decline.”

An expert panel comprising Yolanda Barnes, Director, Duncan Bowie, Savills, Reader in Urban Planning and Regeneration from London Metropolitan University, Stellan Fryxell, Partner at Tengbom and Development Director from Grainger, Paul Story, and chaired by Sir Peter Hall, concurred with the research’s findings.

There are rewards for us all in this crunch; Comment; Opinion Simon Jenkins

The Sunday Times 12 October 2008

Do cheer up. There is no such thing as all bad news. Every cloud has a silver lining. Most Britons are still in work and a third of them are on secure state incomes. In the words of Rudy Giuliani, the New York mayor, after 9/11, take the kids to the park, buy a pizza, see a show.

Nor is that all. Some good things are happening. The price of oil has tumbled 40% since July. House prices are down 13% from last year. Whatever the papers imply, this is good news far more than it is bad. Those with strong nerves and some money can even buy shares that are unbelievably cheap.

Restaurants are emptying, air travel is easing and I noticed last week that central London traffic jams were strangely diminished. Soon hotels will be discounting heavily and plumbers will not cost an arm and a leg.

Yes, some people are poor and some are out of work, but not everyone; not even a majority. Keynes was right. The most important thing in a recession is for those with money to keep spending it. Those without can cite Aquinas and remember that the best things in life are free.

The greatest boon to result from the financial collapse is the end of the age of hysteria. We shall never again hear Gordon Brown inflating the dotcom bubble or boasting "the death of boom and bust". We are free of Peter Mandelson professing himself "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich". Those whose vulgar boosterism was unsuited to national leadership have been silenced.

Tom Richmond on the reshuffle

Yorkshire Post 11 October 2008

AFTER embarrassing the Government when she allowed herself to be photographed walking up 10 Downing Street carrying confidential Cabinet documents that revealed the true extent of the plummeting housing market, it was inevitable that Don Valley MP Caroline Flint would be moved in Gordon Brown's reshuffle.

Her botched handling of the eco-towns policy, and the Government's house-building targets, left her reputation in ruins. Yet, her new role as Europe Minister will be no easier, given that Ms Flint will be the public face of Labour's European elections campaign next year.

The PM clearly hopes that Ms Flint will be able to charm voters into supporting the Government. I beg to differ. One of the political stories of next year will be the sheer scale of voters, predominantly people who have supported Labour in the past, who will defect to the United Kingdom Independence Party.

No amount of cosmetic surgery, from a policy or personality perspective, will be able to mask the electorate's antipathy towards the European Union.

Homes figure set to increase

Evesham Journal 9 October 2008

EVESHAM and Pershore could have to find room for hundreds of additional new homes if a government study is accepted by planning inspectors next year.

A report carried out by Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners (NLP) proposes up to 5,500 new homes across South Worcestershire by 2026.

These houses would be in addition to the 24,500 already planned as part of the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy (SWJCS). However, Wychavon believe that 1,500 of the homes could be placed at the proposed eco town at Long Marston.

As part of the SWJCS, Evesham is likely to receive 2,300 new homes and Pershore looks set to accommodate 1,000, but the NLP report published on Tuesday (7) looks set to see these numbers rise.

Wychavon District Council’s Cllr Audrey Steel is chairman of the South Worcestershire joint advisory panel. She said: “We have already agreed to a huge amount of development in the South Worcestershire area.

“We have serious misgivings about any of the scenarios put forward by NLP, but we need to look at the full report before responding to the implications of them.”

Cllr Judy Pearce, spokesperson for planning at Wychavon added: “This report focuses solely on housing and fails to consider other basic infrastructure needs which are essential with this scale of development.

“It also pays no regard to the established regional policy or urban renaissance, ie the direction of growth to regenerate the conurbation, which is also worrying.”

Wychavon head of planning Gill Collin said she was not surprised that the numbers of houses proposed for South Worcestershire had increased.

“We knew that this report was due out and suspected that there would be an increase in numbers. We will be taking the NLP report into account before issuing our response to the Regional Spatial Strategy,” she said.

Horror at 10,100 new homes plan

Stratford Herald 9 October 2008

A SHOCK proposal to build another 10,100 new homes in the Stratford district within the next two decades was greeted with horror this week by councillors and environmentalists.

Originally the district was scheduled to accommodate 5,600 extra housing units between 2011 and 2026, but a study commissioned by the government is recommending another 4,500 on top of that—an increase of more than 80 per cent.

Cllr Stuart Beese (Cons, Stratford), the deputy leader of Stratford District Council and its planning portfolio holder, told the Herald: “We anticipated some form of increase because the government had been talking about stretching targets, but this has come forward as a bit of a shock.”

The recommendation is contained in a report published on Tuesday by Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners on the development of options for the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS).

Said Cllr Beese: “I don’t think we have the employment in this district to cover this level of ‘in-migration’. What we would be producing with this plan would be thousands of commuters, which seems to be against the climate policy.

“Obviously we will be doing anything we can to analyse this report and put up as strong a defence against it as we can.”

But Cllr Beese added: “If the Secretary of State adopts this recommendation it won’t be a case of the government asking us, ‘Do you mind?’, it will be a case of them saying, ‘You will...’.”

There were already signs last night (Wednesday) of a looming political row between the ruling Conservatives on Stratford District Council and the opposition Liberal Democrats—even though Cllr Beese is calling for the burying of political differences between the parties to fight the recommendation as a united front.

“Should this plan be adopted it is beholden of every councillor—irrespective of party politics—to work together on this because it will have an impact on all the residents,” said Cllr Beese.

But Cllr Hazel Wright (Lib Dem, Studley), the opposition leader on the district council, said: “An almost doubling of the housing numbers’ target could place a real strain on the district. The real tragedy is that part of the reason we could be allocated extra houses is because the Tories allowed so much development before.

“The consultants state that by delivering more than the target over the past five years, Stratford has indicated ‘market capacity to increase supply beyond the RSS preferred option’. If the Tories had listened to the Lib Dems when we first warned of over-development and if they had brought in the [housing] moratorium when we first asked, the consultants wouldn’t have had the excuse to try to push even more development Stratford’s way.”

Yesterday - in a completely separate exercise to the proposed 6,000-home eco-town at Middle Quinton - St Modwen, the co-promoter of the scheme, announced that it had initiated further consultation on refined development proposals for its 478-acre portion of the site at Long Marston.

The company has continued discussions with the district council about a masterplan for the site despite the emergence of the ecotown scheme, which it is copromoting with the Stratford-based Bird Group.

The masterplan will be superceded by the eco-town if the government gives the go-ahead for Middle Quinton, but will continue as an ongoing project if the eco-town development is rejected.

Letter: MORE SPIN FROM ECO-TOWN PROMOTERS

Stratford Herald 9 October 2008

Sir: The developers of the proposed ecotown were cited in last week’s Herald as saying that the formation of a coalition of environmental and social organisations confirms “wide-spread backing for ecotowns and an urgent need for the affordable housing they would deliver”.

This is yet more spin from the promoters.

First, the individual statements from the coalition organisations reflect only a very general endorsement of ecotown principles with which anyone would be hard-pressed to disagree.

A number of these organisations sound notes of caution about the current project and none of them specifically endorses the idea of eco-towns in rural locations.

David Orr, of the National Housing Federation, says: “Eco-towns must be in places that are truly socially and ecologically sustainable.”

Peter Lipman, policy director of Sustrans (sustainable travel), says: “If appropriate locations are chosen (and that’s a very big ‘if’) eco-towns could provide those demonstrations [of how new settlements can be built].”

I wrote to Peter Lipman to query Sustrans’ involvement with the coalition since his organisation had earlier spoken out so strongly against the current project. He replied: “We are emphatically opposed to almost all of the suggested locations and wrote direct to the minister to say just that.

“Our position on eco-towns has not changed and is as set out in my statement which formed part of the press release issued by the Town and Country Planning Association.”

He goes on: “I think that’s one of the problems with press coverage. We are members of the coalition which you mention, but that coalition has other members like us which are very, very clear that we can only be in it on the express basis I’ve quoted; ie that eco-towns in theory could, if done correctly, be very useful.”

Second, many planning and environmental organisations have spoken out strongly against the specific problems of the current project, including the proposed Long Marston eco-town.

When will the government and the developers be responding to their arguments?

These specialists—Friends of the Earth, the Campaign for Better Transport, the Planning Officers Society, Coventry City Council and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds among many—are heartily in favour of green living and affordable housing.

They believe new towns in rural isolation are the wrong way to achieve these goals. Surely new affordable housing at the current 35 per cent target set by Warwickshire districts (and that is higher than the 33 per cent proposed by the developers) spread throughout our villages and towns is a far better solution.

Mary Johnson, Upper Quinton.

RESIDENTS WILL BE ‘GHETTOIZED’

Sir: I was attracted (as opposites generally are) to the quote that came from Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, an organisation which is part of the so-called ‘Coalition’ whose comments relating to Gordon Brown’s proposed new towns were printed in last week’s Herald.

Eco-towns will, according to Wes, promote social justice. Justice for which part of society, I wonder?
It is we residents of villages round and about these potential new towns who feel ‘ghettoized’ (to employ Wes’s obviously academically acceptable term) by the way the government is clumsily riding roughshod over us and a legitimate democratic local planning system.

Sue Rapp, Upper Quinton.

New twist in eco town site plans

Stratford Observer 9 October 2008

CONTROVERSIAL plans to build an eco town at Long Marston took a dramatic twist this week with the announcement proposals for mass development could still be on the cards.

St Modwen Properties own two thirds of the proposed 600 acre site - dubbed Middle Quinton - and this week announced they would be submitting a parallel application to build thousands of homes on the site.

Details of the plans were presented to members of Stratford District Council on Monday evening (October 6) where the St Modwen group announced they would be offering their fresh proposals up for consultation.

A statement released from the St Modwen group after the meeting confirmed the plans were a 'completely separate exercise' to the proposed 600-acre eco town plans.

The statement read: "St Modwen acquired the 478 acre site and after working up development proposals with Stratford District Council, publicly consulted on four redevelopment options for the site last October. The developer has since been working to an agreed timetable with council officers has reduced the four development options to two."

The refined plans consist of two suggested scenarios. One being a large residential mixed use housing scheme of up to to 2,200 homes and the other a leisure based scheme of a holiday village and up to a further 500 homes.