Eco-town planners face ‘tough’ rules

26 March 2008

Master-planners for the Government’s 10 new proposed ‘eco-towns’ should provide public transport within 400m of every resident’s home, and essential facilities within 800m, according to new guidelines.

The Department for Communities and Local Government is considering 57 proposals for its 10 proposed eco-towns of 5,000-20,000 new homes on greenfield sites.

A spokesman for the department said it was applying ‘tough tests’ to the bids. ‘Some appear to be good, others unsuitable,’ it said.

The Town and Country Planning Association, meanwhile, has published guidance, produced with the department, intended to ensure the eco-towns ‘prioritise people over vehicles’. This provides more detail on what is expected of the eco-towns than the department’s prospectus of last summer, which merely advised that ‘significantly higher’ proportions of trips should be made by more sustainable travel modes.

The ‘exemplar towns’ should plan for ‘no more than a maximum of 25% of all journeys to be made by car’ – compared with 40% considered as current best practice, and the 61% national average. This has been achieved on the Continent.

The TCPA highlights, for example, Vauban in Freiburg, Germany, which requires residents to park in off-street car parks at the edge of the development that they must rent or buy, at a cost of £12,500, plus a monthly fee.

Public transport in the towns should be able to compete with the car in terms of cost, directness and quality. To encourage walking and cycling, most roads should have a speed limit of 15mph, and none more than 30mph, and segregated, car-free walking and cycling routes should be more extensive than driving routes.

In some areas where eco-towns have been proposed, there have been public demonstrations, and council leaders have voiced their opposition.

Selby council leader Cllr Mark Crane, council leader of Selby district, where two eco-towns have been proposed, said the settlements would not have jobs nearby, so residents would be forced to travel.

But TCPA chief executive, Gideon Amos, said: ‘Eco-towns can meet the highest standards of sustainable development. Laying down entirely new infrastructure is much more cost-effective on greenfield sites than in existing urban locations.’

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