Experts say new towns 'will become car dependent commuter towns'
Fourteen experts from the world of design, environment, transport and sustainability will line up to challenge developers to improve their visions for eco-towns.
The panel, which includes Wayne Hemingway, Sir Peter Hall (TCPA president) and John Walker (former CEO, BURA), will advise bidders on how eco-towns can be best delivered in the shortlisted locations.
The panel will address issues such as:
• Ensuring house designs are sensitive to local surroundings and create homes people want to live in;
• Using the site's natural resources efficiently;
• Creating a vibrant and healthy community for people of all ages;
• Encouraging more journeys on foot, bicycle and public transport;
• Ensuring the development makes the best use of new technologies;
• Iimproving areas potential to create jobs and spark entrepreneurial spirit.
Recommendations will be published to each bidder over the comings months on how they could improve their visions.
Ministers will make the final decision on locations for eco-town development based on the quality of bids and with reference to the criteria set out in the Eco-town Prospectus.
This week a group of campaign organisations, led by Campaign for Better Transport, wrote to housing minister Caroline Flint to voice concern about the 15 shortlisted eco-town locations.
Although largely supportive of the intiative, the group said that the area could promote car dependancy and undermine the original eco-town objective of sustainability.
The group writes: "The requirement for eco-towns to be 'separate from existing towns' is unhelpful. We urge you to consider the role eco quarters on larger redevelopment sites could play in raising environmental standards in existing towns..."
The letter is signed by Campaign for Better Transport, Sustrans, Friends of the Earth, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), CTC and Carfree UK and supports the CPRE's recent research 'Right idea, wrong place'.
