Eco-towns
> View larger map - Last updated on 17 July 2009 Eco-towns latest
Ministers have announced the first wave of eco-towns to be taken forward at Whitehill-Borden in Hampshire, St Austell (China Clay) in Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk and North West Bicester in Oxfordshire. Proposals to develop eco-towns at Ford, West Sussex, Pennbury, Leicestershire and Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire were deemed unsuitable and have been dropped. In the longer term, the Government is seeking to develop a further six eco-towns.
The Government has published its eco-towns planning policy, following consultation on a Draft Planning Policy Statement and Sustainability Appraisals of eco-towns earlier this year. The consultation deadline was extended twice following BARD's High Court Challenge. CPRE supports the Government's aspirations for more sustainable, affordable housing, but for eco-towns to be truly sustainable, exemplar schemes they must be built and planned in the right way and send a compelling message about the way forward.
High Court Challenge fails
A judge has ruled that the Government's consultation on eco-towns has been lawful. Mr Justice Walker delivered his verdict following Judicial Review proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in January. The challenge was brought by campaign groups the Weston Front and BARD who are concerned about eco-town proposals at Middle Quinton in Warwickshire and Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire.
Sustainability appraisals
Sustainability Appraisals were carried out of shortlisted eco-town proposals. As a result, the Government graded potential schemes as follows:
A) locations that are generally suitable for an eco-town: Rackheath (Greater Norwich)
B) locations that might be suitable subject to meeting specific planning and design objectives: Pennbury, Newton-Bingham (Rushcliffe), Middle Quinton, St Austell, Rossington, North East Elsenham, Marston Vale, Ford, Bordon-Whitehill, North West Bicester (alternative to Weston Otmoor)
C) locations that are only likely to be suitable as an eco-town with substantial and exceptional innovation: Weston Otmoor
Draft Planning Policy Statement and Sustainability Appraisals for Eco-towns
Eco-towns plans
The Government’s plans for creating eco-towns are intended to address three challenges: climate change, the need for more sustainable living and to provide more affordable homes. Developments would be zero carbon, contain a range of facilities, including schools, shops and leisure facilities and be an exemplar in at least one environmental technology.
In 2007 Gordon Brown announced plans to build up to 100,000 homes in five eco-towns. Each town would contain between 5,000 – 20,000 homes. At the Labour party conference that year Gordon Brown Prime Minister, announced a further five eco-towns would be built. Ministers subsequently said up to ten would be chosen. Last year, fifteen schemes were shortlisted. Five have since been withdrawn.
Promoters of four shortlisted schemes have withdrawn their proposals: at Curborough, Staffordshire; Manby in Lincolnshire; Marston Vale, Bedfordshire and Hanley Grange, Cambridgeshire. The council-led bid at Manby was withdrawn in the face of strong public opposition. Gallaghers withdrew their bid at Marston Vale in recognition that a development here would divert resources away from existing plans for the area. Tesco withdrew its bid to build an eco-town at Hanley Grange, near Cambridge after concluding that the future of the site was best decided with local stakeholders through the regional planning process. Developers behind the Curborough scheme still propose to develop the site, but not as an eco-town.
In February O&H Properties Ltd, the company proposing to build an eco-town at Marston Vale, Bedfordshire, withdrew their proposal saying sustainable development was best achieved through the plan-led system. They are the fifth developer to quit the programme.
Our ten tests for eco-towns
We believe that eco-town proposals should:
- be subject to full public consultation
- have been rigorously tested through regional and local planning processes
- offer the most sustainable option for accommodating housing growth
- demonstrate efficient land use
- be complete communities with jobs, public transport, affordable housing, schools, health and recreation facilities
- be genuinely carbon neutral in construction and use
- enhance the local landscape and natural heritage
- minimise pollution and make efficient use of natural resources
- provide high-quality public transport links to nearby settlements
- encourage a strong sense of place and community
Our concerns on shortlisted eco-towns
A risk of car dependency
Due to their location most of the shortlisted eco-towns are unlikely to achieve sustainable transport arrangements: instead they are likely to be car dependent commuter towns.
Loss of countryside
Sites are mainly greenfield and include some farmland including, in some cases, the highest grade agricultural land; two sites lie in the Green Belt.
Water supply stretched
Four schemes were shortlisted in the East of England, a region where water supply and sewerage are already at maximum capacity, two of these remain.
Goes against local planning
The approach to site selection has not been plan-led, goes against established plans agreed with local communities and is based on random bids rather than sound planning.
Lack of public consultation
An unwarranted level of secrecy and uncertainty has surrounded the initiative,with communities being asked their views on schemes for which insufficient information has been made available
Unsustainable communities
There is a worrying lack of evidence demonstrating that schemes will offer truly sustainable models of living and working.
Not genuinely carbon neutral
It is misleading for ‘zero carbon’ to be defined as being ‘across the whole development’ and then to qualify this by saying the measure only applies to buildings since transport accounts for a significant proportion of carbon emissions.
Lessons learnt will be of limited value elsewhere
The insistence that eco-towns should be ‘freestanding’ makes no sense since most new development should be in and around towns where infrastructure is already in place or is more easy to provide.
Our recommendations
What we are recommending as a basis for moving forward on this initiative:
- the process should be plan-led – the Government should reject all eco-towns proposals which conflict with local and regional development plans
- the Government should focus on doing one or two eco-towns properly, and reject sub-standard proposals
- the Government should initiate a programme of eco-quarters, inviting existing neighbourhood, towns and cities to submit proposals to become ‘eco-towns’ or to develop eco-quarters or neighbourhoods
- a ‘zero-carbon’ approach should apply to the settlement as a whole, and cover transport as well as buildings
- all new developments, regardless of size, should be required to meet stringent environmental standards
- an integrated approach to transport, across a district as a whole, should be taken to maximise potential for journeys to and from eco-towns to be made in a sustainable fashion, rather than relying on unproven technologies such as Personal Rapid Transit
- consideration should be given to pioneering “Sustainable Transport Demonstration Districts”, the logical next step beyond Sustainable Transport Demonstration Towns
- each eco-town should have a car-free centre at its core as well as car free residential areas
Our response to the consultation
Read our response to the Government's consultation on eco-towns: Eco-towns: living a greener future.
> Eco-towns: living a greener future – CPRE's response (361K PDF)
Grounds for a legal challenge
Several legal opinions, including one by CPRE's Honorary Counsel, John Hobson QC, cast doubt on the legality of the eco-towns process and suggest a number of grounds on which a legal challenge may be made. Key concerns are the conflict between identifying and promoting specific eco-towns in a Planning Policy Statement and the plan led-process and questions over whether the Government's approach will fulfil requirements for Strategic Environmental Assessment under the EU Directive.
Counsel for The Local Government Association's legal opinion on eco-towns consider the Government's approach may be unlawful in a number of respects, see their joint opinion and news release: Legal challenge to eco-towns.
Local Government Association website:
> Joint opinion (103K PDF)
> News release: Legal challenge to eco-towns
