Eco towns - SprintBio - Distibutors of environmentally friendly boilers, burners and heat pumps

The government’s approach to eco-towns is “deeply flawed” and wide open to legal challenges, the Local Government Association has warned, but the Department for Communities and Local Government has poured cold water over the claims.

Read more about the “Deeply Flawed” Eco-Towns

Householders wanting to live in Gordon Brown’s pioneering eco-towns face service charges of more than £500 a year on top of their annual council tax bill. Developers in several of the 13 proposed sites are planning to levy annual charges for subsidised bus travel and management costs to be paid to a local community trust.

Find out more about the Eco-Town dwellers service charge

Campaigners against an eco-town at Hanley Grange have warned the proposal could still go ahead - despite the Wellcome Trust announcing it would not sell land to developers.

Read the rest of the article on the Hanley Grange Eco-Town

We have a government target to cut our carbon emissions by 15 per cent by 2010, and far more stringent targets are being proposed. Patients don’t really appreciate how much energy and water we use. But in our trust, more people are aware of it - we’ve been banging the drum now for three years.

Read the rest of the article on the NHS goes green

The announcement by the Water Consumer Council a week ago that bills might rise by £30 per household and that more drought orders and hosepipe bans could be imposed, will pile pain on hard-pressed homeowners. But there are ways to harvest water for many of your needs and you could also be helping to reduce flash flooding.

Read more about how saving water can cut bills

Developers want to build a community with 5,000 homes and 2,500 jobs at the site of the former Rossington Colliery, alongside the M18. Under the proposals, a railway station and new road would be created to allow direct access for buses to Doncaster town centre, with the route forming the first link of a road between the motorway and Robin Hood airport. But to ensure the carriageways remained free-flowing for buses, private cars would be banned from using the road during the most congested periods.

Find out more about how motorists may be forced to give way to Eco-Road plans

The number of Gordon Brown’s flagship eco-towns should be slashed by two thirds because most of the proposed schemes are not green enough, senior civil servants have warned. They have advised ministers to cut the number from 10 to only two or three “exemplar” towns, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Read the rest of the article about the scrapped eco-towns

The man behind controversial plans to build an eco-town at a former Norfolk RAF base said last night he was prepared to move his scheme closer to Norwich after it emerged ministers were keen on the idea.

Read the rest of the article on the relocated eco-town

A top Government minister is expected to visit the county to discuss eco-town plans in the next two weeks. However, it has not been confirmed whether housing minister Caroline Flint will visit the actual site of the proposed eco-town, south-east of Leicester. It is believed she may be visiting Market Harborough on Monday, July 28, but the Government said this was not finalised. Campaigners are concerned the minister may not find time to visit the location of the proposed 15,000-home eco-town.

Read the rest of the article on the eco-friendly MP

Fife residents would install more renewable technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels on their homes if they knew it would lead to lower fuel bills, research by one of the country’s leading environmental organisations has revealed.

Read the rest of the article on going green to cut energy bills

Littlehampton Town Council has voted to oppose the proposed Ford Eco-Town, following a heated debate. The full council met on Thursday, June 29 with members agreeing by a 12-three majority to object to the scheme on a number of grounds, including a lack of transport links and concerns over how “eco” the town would really be.

Read the rest of the article on Ford Eco-Town rejected by local counsil

Two more major organisations have waded into the debate over plans for an eco-town at the former RAF Coltishall airbase by voicing fresh concerns. With an announcement due within the next six months on whether the ambitious proposals will make the cut, Reporter Kim Briscoe takes a look at the support and opposition for the plan.

Read the rest of the article on the growning list of Eco proposals

It’s been the big issue for ages and it doesn’t seem to want to stop. The eco-town argument rolls on and on, but this week it has received a major boost when the Queen and Prince Charles got involved. Whilst Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has given the green light for the Ashford site and one developer hits back at MP’s criticisms.

The Queen and the Prince of Wales have joined the race to be part of the government’s controversial eco-town scheme, with the crown estate acting as partner in a consortium that hopes to built a town of 5,000 houses near Nottingham. Prince Charles’s Foundation for the Built Environment has been asked to advise on the scheme’s design and to try to ensure community involvement from the outset for the project.

Read the rest of the article on the Prince Charles ‘eco-town’

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has given the green light to the first of the government’s hugely controversial eco-towns. According to the developer, the scheme will achieve Level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, with its energy and water consumption reaching the highest Level 6.

Read the rest of the article on Blears eco-town announcement

The companies proposing to construct the controversial eco-town near Mickleton have hit back at criticism of the project by the Cotswolds’ MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown. The St Modwen and Bird Group companies retaliated when Mr Clifton-Brown wrote a letter to the Government’s housing and planning minister, Caroline Flint, detailing his opposition to the controversial eco-town that would be called Middle Quinton and be built at Long Marston, Warwickshire.

Read the rest of the article on the developers retaliation

This week Housing Minister Caroline Flint has announced that her decision could have been delayed by months. However the plans for a 5,000-home eco-town in Lichfield have been withdrawn by it’s developers.

Ms Flint, the government’s housing minister, said the announced deadline of October for the sites to be selected would be slipping until December or even next January.
She also stressed it had never been stated by her there would be exactly ten sites finally selected.

Read the rest of the article on Ms Flint’s Eco Town announcement

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.

Read the rest of the article on the withdrawl of the West Midlands Eco Town

The current Labour government is very keen on ecotowns as an ideal way of delivering a high volume of zero-carbon housing and satisfying the country’s demand for new homes. However there are some under-publicised points that rarely appear on press releases concerning the current proposals. Here are a few of them:

1. Many of the proposed ecotown sites lie partially on greenbelt land.

The Weston-on-the-Green site in Oxfordshire for example relies on such land for 12% of its total area. This means vast ancient woodlands and a nature reserve, protected for many years, would now be sacrificed to developers, as would be an even greater area of simply green (but not officially greenbelt-labelled) land. Farmland too will suffer; 2,046 acres would be lost at this site alone.

2. 12 of the 15 proposed ecotown sites are in Conservative constituencies (10 of which will be chosen for eventual development under current plans).

This is perhaps inevitable in the countryside, though it could also be argued that the measure has some degree of calculation to it - intended to minimise opposition (it has not really worked in that sense anyway, see point 9).

3. There is enough Brownfield land in the country right now to build roughly 1m new homes at medium density. In addition there are at least 600,000 empty habitable homes in England (according to Gordon Brown), plus, 9% of Commercial property currently lies empty.

In short, to build new homes in such a climate represents a lazy mismanagement of both land and resources. Granted it is more difficult to get brownfield sites converted than it is to uproot a few trees and build on already flat land - but it is also far and away the more prudent and efficient long term plan.

4. Ecotowns are supposed to be zero carbon. Except that they are in essence commuter communities which will inevitabely rely on more and more cars as their inhabitants make long journeys to work each day.

Ecotown press materials claim residents will use only public transport to commute - which must be either a shame-faced attempt at deception, or the view of a truly deluded and under-informed official. If we could instead convert existing brownfield land, most of which is in city centres, we would not only save greenbelt land - but also place workers closer to their places of work, thereby reducing car dependence.

5. After the ecotowns will come more out-of-town supermarkets and in turn more car journeys.

How else would an ecotown population (of between 5,000 and 20,000 people) get supplies? We cannot be foolish enough to think they will all be served by a local baker and butcher (the farmland has been destroyed to build the town remember). In a large ecotown we are looking at 20,000 extra car journeys per week - just for the weekly shop.

6. The architecture of the proposed ecotowns is quite frankly very uninspiring, if not plain drab.

Parkridge Holdings (involved in the Oxforshire proposals) is a fairly typical example. Visit www.parkridge.co.uk and click ‘residential’ to see for yourself.

7. In a recent excellent Guardian article Jonathan Glancey estimated that by converting current Brownfield capacity for housing the 200,000 new homes figure, which is the target of the ecotown initiative, could be not only met but exceeded.

The numbers speak for themselves - in essence we could achieve the goals of increasing housing capacity - and in a zero-carbon manner, without sacrificing any precious greenbelt or farming land. The only obstacle is cost (it is more expensive to convert land than to build on virgin land) - but surely short-term concerns such as this should not trump the long-term considerations on this issue (sustainability is sort of the point isn’t it?).

8. Ministers involved in the issue seem a little uncertain of exactly what they are doing.

Lady Andrews, Undersecretary for Housing, recently responded to a question on the matter saying ‘the five or ten ecotowns which will be built’ - suggesting somewhat of a confused reduction of scope for the plans. Similarly Caroline Flint, Minister for Housing and Development, has on occasion ignored the question of how much of the required land would be on greenbelt sites (http://tinyurl.com/5jxxqg).

9. Opposition to the plans is growing.

The Weston-on-the-Green site for example is being vehemently opposed by the Weston Front - a group led by Anthony Henman (father of tennis player Tim), while numerous other protests have also occurred in Warwickshire over the proposed Long Marston site.

10. Labour has pledged to build 3m new homes in England over the next 12 years. The current crop of ecotowns would contribute only 7% of this figure (200,000).

In terms of meeting our requirements (and Labour fulfilling their pledge), the current ecotown proposals involve sacrificing a lot, to meet only a very small fraction of our needs. We must question if this is an adequate return for what will be lost.

This is not to say that the proposals do not have any merits at all. They would of course increase housing capacity in the UK, and would increase the number of zero-carbon homes on the market (though it is hard to see how, once inhabited, these would then become zero-carbon households with the more than likely car dependence).

At the moment the only group genuinely happy with the plans are the developers set to reap large profits from the project, by being presented with the dream scenario of building on undeveloped countryside land (with no expensive clearing costs).

It is a shame that it is environmentalists who are most opposed to these ecotowns - and developers who are most keen, and also surely a clear indication that the current proposals are inadequate and misguided by quite a considerable measure.

Credit to the government for trying - but now it is time to listen to the very serious concerns of both experts and the public, and come up with another plan.

Dejan Levi

Hundreds of campaigners gathered outside Parliament to protest against Government plans to build eco-towns in their local areas.
The protesters, who came from across the country, accused the Government of building “rural ghettos of the future” and failing to consult local people over the proposals.
I’ve picked out three articles from around the country that all give a story on the march:

read the article on Luton Today

read the article on The Blackpool Gazette

read the article on The Herts and Essex Observer

Plans to build an eco-town near Manby have been axed - to the delight of shocked protestors. East Lindsey District councillors rejected a potential multi-million pound Government investment scheme to build 5,000 homes on the former RAF site. At last night’s full council meeting, they had been asked to give the go ahead for a £100,000 Government-funded feasibility study into the scheme - but instead voted to withdraw interest in the project entirely.

read the article on plans for Eco-Towns discarded

Thursday 11.20am - Following the decision to scrap plans to build an eco town near Louth East Lindsey District Council has said it still needs to tackle the lack of affordable housing. The council will now develop work with its local partners to address the key issues of affordable housing, skills, investment and coastal flood defences.

read the article on Eco-Town rejected to allow work on other issues

A Lincolnshire council shortlisted for one of the Government’s controversial eco-towns has withdrawn its application. The proposed towns - ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 homes - have been hailed by ministers as the future, but critics claim they would be “simply unsustainable”.

read the article on Eco-Towns stopped and deemed to be unsustainable

CAMPAIGNERS fighting the proposal for an ‘eco-town’ at Ford will lobby Parliament next week (June 30). A delegation from Communities Against Ford Eco-Town (CAFE) will make the journey to London to make their views known on the proposal to build at least 5,000 houses on greenfield land at Ford in West Sussex.

read the article on the parliamentary lobby to prevent Eco-Towns

Wednesday, 2.30pm - THREE major landowners have submitted plans detailing how the former RAF Newton airbase, near Bingham, could be developed into an “eco-town”. The Crown Estate, Defence Estates and Newton Nottingham LLP have submitted the plans to the Department for Communities and Local Government, which plans to build 10 such towns around the country.

read the article on Eco-Town planned and put forward

The Better Accessible Responsible Development (Bard) group is opposed to 6,000 new homes near Long Marston. Bard has applied for a judicial review of the government’s eco-town process, claiming the programme is “unlawful” and lacks “adequate consultation”. A Communities and Local Government spokesman said it did not believe there was any basis for a legal challenge. Ministers say the towns would be low energy, carbon-neutral developments.

read the article on acting against Eco Towns