news : eco towns - update

On 16 July 2009 the Government announced that four sites – Whitehill Bordon in Hampshire, St Austell in Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk and North West Bicester in Oxfordshire – had been chosen as the location for new eco towns.  The announcement followed formal consultation on a short list of proposed locations and standards for eco towns contained within a draft Planning Policy Statement (PPS) on Eco Towns, published in November 2008.

The four locations chosen were all led or strongly supported by their local authorities, linked to existing development and are big enough to function as a new settlement without being isolated developments in open countryside.

The Eco Towns programme is intended to offer the opportunity to achieve high standards of sustainable living whilst maximising the potential for affordable housing.  Some 30% of housing in each eco town is to be affordable to help people currently on local housing waiting lists.  The Government requires them to be ‘zero-carbon’ developments and exemplary in areas of sustainability, such as energy production and waste disposal.  The new environmentally-friendly towns’ low energy and carbon neutral developments will be the first new towns in England since the 1960s.  It is intended that they will achieve exceptionally high qualities of environmental building design and laid out to reduce residents’ reliance on private cars, so that 50% of trips are by non-car means, with homes being within 10 minutes walk of frequent public transport routes and neighbourhood services.  Unsustainable commuter trips should be avoided and as a minimum there should be access to one employment opportunity per one new dwelling, that is easily reached by walking, cycling and/or public transport.  Forty per cent of each town’s total area should be allocated to green space, of which at least half should be public, and local biodiversity should be conserved and enhanced.

Developers of the four successful locations will be able to bid for a share of £60m start-up growth funding for 2009-2011 to support local infrastructure and to get demonstrator projects and exhibition homes on site.

The Government is looking for a second tranche of eco towns to be identified through local and regional plans with up to 10 being built out or under way by 2020.

JWPC Ltd was appointed by Oxfordshire County Council to carry out and identify its non-highway related infrastructure needs for North West Bicester.

Should you require any information on eco towns, please contact Paul Semple at JWPC Ltd in Woodstock.  Alternatively e-mail your enquiries to psemple@jwpc.co.uk.