Developers withdraw West Midlands eco-town bid

Plans for a 5,000-home eco-town in Lichfield have been withdrawn by developers.

The Curborough Consortium has withdrawn its bid following talks with the Department for Communities and Local Government last week.

However, the Consortium said it remained committed to the principles behind the Government’s controversial eco-town agenda and still wants to develop the Fradley Airfield site near Lichfield in Staffordshire.

The site, on 700 acres of a disused airfield, has been earmarked by the Government as one of 15 possible eco-towns across the country.

The Curborough Consortium included four companies – Redrow Homes, Hallam Land Management, Banks Developments and Gleeson Homes.

A Consortium spokesman said: “We were delighted to have been shortlisted and have fully engaged in the eco-town process. It is with regret that we feel we must withdraw our bid, however, we remain committed to the principles behind the eco-town agenda.

“We will continue to pursue our planning application for a new settlement at Curborough.”

The Conservative Party said the announcement was 'another blow' to the credibility of the Government's eco-towns strategy following the rejection of another scheme in Selby last month by council leaders.

According to the Tories, there is also speculation that developers Gallagher are to pull out of the Bedfordshire eco-town bid.

The Conservative Shadow Minister for Housing, Grant Shapps, said: “Gordon Brown’s approach to housing is now so discredited that developers are opting to pull themselves out of the Government-backed scheme and go it alone with their planning applications.

“We believe that more housing is urgently needed and that it’s essential that all homes are environmentally friendly in the future. The only way to achieve this is by working with, rather than against, local communities.

"Labour Ministers need to understand that they can’t simply sit in Whitehall and mandate top-down Whitehall targets to get the job done.”