CABE’s ‘wasteland’ fears for Gateway

29 November 2007

The Thames Gateway will be an urban wasteland of badly-designed housing estates and public spaces unless there is a unifying commitment to design quality, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) has warned.

It comes as a Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) report shows half of the authorities in the area are failing in five of 10 key indicators. The CPRE’s report shows at least half of the 18 councils show regression or no improvement on access to local amenities and services, town centre renewal, and green space management.

No authorities in the Gateway showed a year-on-year improvement in green space management, which was measured by the increase in percentage of available green space managed to Green Flag standards – with many authorities recording zero per cent, both this year and last.

Hilary Newport, CPRE’s spokesperson on the Thames Gateway, said: ‘All of the five failing trends we have identified will be of concern to the Government.’ In response to these failures, CABE and the Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership have launched the Thames Gateway design pact, which calls for an immediate step change in design quality in the Gateway, and provides clarity about what actions are needed to achieve this over the next three years.

CABE recommends linking funding to design quality, taking a wider view of planning which encompasses transport and community infrastructure, not just land use, and ensuring that no land in public ownership is sold without a binding masterplan for ‘exemplary’ developments.

In response to the CPRE report, the Department for Communities and Local Government claimed much of it was based on out-of-date data, and insisted that improving green space management was vital to its plans for the area. ‘We've already invested more than £20M to create and enhance at least 1,300ha of green space,’ said a spokesman.

‘Our shortly-to-be-published Thames Gateway Delivery Plan will show that it is quite possible to develop more homes and create more jobs without having a negative impact on green spaces.

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CABE’s ‘wasteland’ fears for Gateway

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