Eco towns will encourage car-dependence, unless the draft planning policy statement is changed to allow for suburban developments, a group of leading transport and environmental organisations warns.
In its response to the Government’s draft PPS on eco towns, the group – which includes Campaign for Better Transport, Sustrans, CTC and Friends of the Earth – has called for several changes in order to yield greater sustainability.
The requirement for eco towns to be ‘separate and distinct’ from larger urban areas should be abandoned, the group recommends. As the policy stands, it would exclude urban extensions which, in many cases, would be the more sustainable option.
It cites a report on sustainable settlement in continental Europe, which concludes that all the success stories are close to growing urban conurbations, so they can share infrastructure and access to jobs and services. But some of the short-listed UK eco towns are extensions to smaller settlements, which do not fulfil this criteria.
Eco towns should also be connected by rail as well as buses – the use of the term ‘public transport links’ might imply that bus connections would suffice, which would be a ‘mistake’.
‘Also, as currently phrased the draft PPS also seems to imply that public transport links are less important for eco towns which are more remote from local service centres,’ it says in a joint statement.
The group argues that bus rapid transits would not on their own prove sufficient to provide an alternative to the car, and light rail might provide the necessary connectivity, under some limited circumstances.
It calls for a clearer target in the PPS for reducing carbon emissions from transport, and voices concerns that transport emissions are excluded from the definition of zero carbon in eco towns. The PPS should also reduce the target of the maximum proportion of car journeys made from eco towns from the ‘unchallenging’ 50% proposed to 40%.
‘The Government needs to rethink its eco town ideas, at least as far as transport is concerned. Otherwise, the eco towns will simply be high-powered engines of growth in the middle of the countryside,’ said Richard Bourn, of Campaign for Better Transport. The consultation closed on Thursday.
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