LEADING PROPONENT OF THE ECO-TOWNS PROGRAMME WELCOMES CONSULTATION ON 15 LOCATIONS AND CALLS FOR FURTHER WAVE OF ECO SETTLEMENTS » Housing » 24dash.com

Leading housing and planning charity the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) today welcomed the publication of the Government’s consultation paper on eco-towns and the announcement of a Planning Policy Statement (PPS) on eco-towns due to be published in draft this summer.

TCPA Chief Executive Gideon Amos said:
“With a potential to deliver around 200,000 new homes eco-towns are an essential part of the solution to the problem of delivering affordable homes at the highest environmental standards to families and households crying out for decent home in a good environment. At last new towns take their place in the portfolio of development solutions and communities can see Government is taking decisive action to press forward the agenda. In areas not represented in the consultation we hope the proposed planning policy will enable more eco towns to come forward through the proper plan making process, perhaps even a new programme of eco-villages to satisfy the urgent need for rural affordable housing.

Eco-towns, because they are new settlements, present unique opportunities to create a different kind of town from scratch, creating places where people want to live and meeting the highest standards in terms of sustainable development. The criteria we have published in the TCPA scoping report and the first eco-town Worksheets on transport, community formation and water-cycle management, will guide the further masterplanning of eco towns and can be used by planners and developers to achieve the level of ambition everybody wishes to see coming from this initiative. The intention of this consultation, to make sure proposals are further reviewed and refined to meet tough criteria, is absolutely right and the TCPA will be looking carefully at the locations announced in terms particularly of available public transport to help ensure that only those that meet the highest standards get the go ahead.”

The Worksheets launched last week are the first of many – other Worksheet topics currently being developed include green infrastructure, housing & inclusive design, waste & recycling, energy and the economy & ‘green collar’ jobs. Once they are all published, the Worksheets will together represent a comprehensive set of policy and planning guidance on the range of subject areas to be addressed and the standards to be met by the promoters of eco-towns.

Gideon Amos added:
“The TCPA welcome the emphasis in the consultation document that the eco-town locations short-listed will be linked new settlements, however this must be strongly supported by effective public and sustainable transport links. The recently published eco-towns transport worksheet highlights the unique opportunity creating a new community provides to plan and implement transport systems in a radically different way. Conventional approaches will need to be turned on their head in order to create lifetime places that prioritise people over vehicles.

Similarly eco-towns provide a tremendous opportunity to think creatively about water and our relationship to it and to make significant progress towards sustainable water management. This is highlighted in the water-cycle worksheet prepared by the Environment Agency which, amongst robust water efficiency and management criteria, recommends that residents of eco-towns should rightly expect to live in a community where they can consider themselves safe and at low risk from the most extreme flooding events, now and in the future.”

As an independent campaigning charity calling for more integrated planning based on the principles of accessibility, sustainability, diversity, and community cohesion the TCPA does not support or oppose any proposed locations and will not be commenting on individual plans until more detailed assessment of the sites has taken place with a full sustainability appraisal.