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Eco-towns? Top down does not work
.July 23 2008 ~Eco-towns must be delivered without bypassing the planning processes
Eco-towns plan 'may be unlawful' says the BBC this morning. Lawyers for the Local Government Association are reported as saying that the already existing planning policy statement covers the concept of providing housing in new settlements in an environmentally sustainable way. There did not seem to be any justification for promoting eco-towns outside the existing rules, "other than the government's wish to avoid the system due to the proper need for scrutiny, which takes time." They said the legal advice showed the government's approach to eco-towns was "deeply flawed" Bidders for eco-towns at Manby, in Lincolnshire, and Curborough, Staffordshire, have pulled out, while part of a third bid at New Marston, in Bedfordshire, has also been withdrawn. Liberal Democrat communities spokeswoman Julia Goldsworthy is quoted: "What this government fails to understand is that centrally imposed solutions are doomed to failure."
June 30 2008 ~ Continuing row over eco-towns
The Financial Times reports that its own recent analysis found
"... most of the sites would flout the government's own planning guidelines, drawn up in 2004. Planning officials in most of the locations said the eco-town proposed did not meet the criteria in their region's development strategy. Objections have focused on the greenfield nature of many sites, and the lack of transport links, as well as the difficulty of building homes at a price affordable to first-time buyers...."
The deadline for written responses to the government's initial consultation ends today. The second phase will involve presentations at the 15 sites and in July, the government will publish the draft planning policy statement. There will be a so-called "sustainability appraisal" next month and then the final shortlist of locations will be published in the autumn. Caroline Flint is claiming that the YouGov poll of 1,693 adults in England in which about 46 per cent said they supported eco-towns, with only 9 per cent opposing them, was an indication of "clear support in favour of eco-towns". (See also below)June 9 2008 ~ Newsnight interview with Caroline Flint "confirmed my worst fears" says warmwell reader
"eco-towns" must surely join - as one emailer says "- other oxymorons of New Labour: polyclinics, animal welfare, weapons of mass destruction ..." At least 2,000 protesters have marched three miles against one of the Government's proposed so-called eco-towns at Ford, near Arundel, in West Sussex. Ford is not a brownfield site. 87% of the land is greenfield farmland - i.e. land actively used for agriculture that can grow local food.
We have looked, with sinking heart, at the issue of eco-towns before. In April (Top-down does not work) we wrote how dispiriting it was to read :"Ministers have drawn up plans to force through the development of 10 eco-towns despite widespread local opposition..." Telegraph
As Charles Clover , too, wrote in the Telegraph, "The fact remains that it would be more eco-friendly not to build these eco-towns at all."
Caroline Flint on Newsnight can be seen and heard on BBC iPlayer until Friday and one does not have to be a local resident to spend a moment registering protest at yet another undemocratic and unhelpful piece of greenwash. If you would care to sign the Downing St online petition go to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/No-Ford-Eco-Town/ (new window)April 3 2008 ~ Top-down does not work
The success of the Transition Town lies in its evolutionary process - starting with the enthusiasm of communities taking matters into their own hands and watching in awe at what so quickly starts to take shape because of all the various local skills and talents available. The "Transition Handbook" by Rob Hopkins is an antidote to the way top-down government works.
"It's a question of unleashing the collective genius around you.. ...unless we can create this sense of anticipation, elation and a collective call to adventure on a wider scale, any government responses will be doomed to failure, or will need to battle protractedly against the will of the people..... ."
So it is with a sigh that we read in today's Telegraph:"Ministers have drawn up plans to force through the development of 10 eco-towns despite widespread local opposition..."
The eco-towns proposed - and what "eco" means in this context is rather hard to fathom - include poor Throckmorton, in Worcestershire. (recent posts on the Transition movement) See also update in Guardian And as Charles Clover says in the Telegraph, "The fact remains that it would be more eco-friendly not to build these eco-towns at all."February 12 ~ "I think for the environmental movement more broadly to ignore population is a gross misreading of the problems we face..."
In advance of the Green Party conference, the BBC's Westminster Hour on Sunday spoke to the Greens' South of England MEP, Dr Caroline Lucas. Almost as if in reply to our emailer's remark on Sunday that "No one ever says that we should breed less and consume less!" Dr Lucas did speak on the subject of population control and her worry about the rush to build "eco-towns". She talks too of the desirability of our eating less meat but good quality, animal friendly meat. She says the Green Party wants to see farmers getting higher returns for good quality animal-welfare products. ( warmwell's unofficial transcript)
December 28 2007 ~ Throckmorton at the mercy of planners yet again
The FMD burial site at Throckmorton in Worcestershire has been a misery for the villagers ever since the hundreds of lorries full of dead animals began trundling past their homes in April 2001. Residents had already had to suffer a huge expansion of the landfill site, an intensive chicken farm was thrust on them in spite of a heroic battle, then an HGV depot, and then the horror of the mass burial ground. ( We remember how Defra "reassured" them that only "healthy" animal bodies were being dumped there...) The following year they were told that a huge refugee camp was to be built there - then, instead, a science park. Now, QinetiQ (of all people) appears to be showing interest in building between 5,000 and 20,000 new houses, said to be "eco-friendly". According to Worcester News the parish council chairman says that the plans "would alter the local landscape and nature of the community irrevocably.... into one large artificially-created urban/suburban development, on a largely greenfield, open site and have enormous impact on all neighbouring communities." This was once our green and pleasant land.
Real eco-settlements
:May 13 2008 ~ Real eco-settlements: " A much needed antidote to the world as seen from Westminster ..."
We agree with the emailer who sent this cheering press release about the coming Launch Event in June that will be a foretaste of the Stroud "Communiversity", designed for those who are considering joining 6 day event in August which will give those interested in local action on housing, food, enterprise and sustainable environments an opportunity to engage first hand with some of Stroud's ground-breaking projects. There will be opportunities for discussion as well as a keynote talk by Professor Hugh Barton, the World Health Organisation's Healthy Cities Champion. His talk is entitled "Creating Healthy, Sustainable Towns and Neighbourhoods", showing examples of disasters and marvellous successes and "challenging Stroud to think holistically". See also the Transitions initiative pages
May 2 2008 ~ Tesco towns or Transition towns?
Britain's small shops and independents are being squeezed out and the Commission has ducked the issue. Dismay at the Competition Commission's Groceries Market Investigation - final report (pdf) was expressed by MPC Associates, a group of Marketing, Management & Economic Consultants specialising in Out of Town shopping development in Europe and the UK. They comment that the CC has
"completely ignored the huge trading advantages of large car parking areas.... the Commission has no understanding of the real trading advantages nor the turnovers per square foot of retail selling space concerned with Out and Edge of Town Shopping .... failed to understand that saturation levels have been reached." (read in full)
As for the the Campaign to Protect Rural England, CPRE, - even before the publication yesterday confirmed their fears, they wrote, "... The Commission has failed to put forward strong tests on diversity or on appropriate scale for new developments .." Even Andrew George's tact cannot fully hide his disappointment.May 2 2008 ~ "change must come in the first instance from the grassroots"
Will the bottom-up local enthusiasm of the many burgeoning Transition Towns initiatives be able to inspire a saner and more human scale solution to the saturation of Tesco towns? Ironically, on the same day as theCompetition Commission report's publication yesterday, CNN reported: "Since governments and big business seem unable, or else unwilling, to deal with these problems head-on, Hopkins believes the change must come in the first instance from the grassroots."
May 1 2008 ~ "...people are hungry for positive solutions which engage their creativity." Rob Hopkins
The Independent today looks at Totnes: ".... In addition to the pound, the transition town organisation offers people advice at "oil vulnerability auditing workshops" on how their businesses can wean themselves off the black stuff; and the group is in talks with the council over "edible landscapes" - herb gardens instead of ornamental verges and bushes. They have recently secured some allotments for the green-fingered, and are promoting the use of energy-saving light bulbs. Similar ideas are in the pipeline....
...change is partly the result of work done by "auditors" from the transition town organisation. " Rob Hopkins is quoted:"...The viral nature of the growth of the transition movement has taken us all by surprise. We have gone from one transition project to there being 50 formal ones and more than 700 at the earlier stages just by word of mouth and the internet... people are hungry for positive solutions which engage their creativity. The transition movement has been described as being 'more like a party than a protest march', and that feeling of being part of something playful and solutions-focused has undoubtedly been a part of its success."
See also warmwell's Transition page.April 17 2008 ~ "... some great old photos of Clapham Common dug up for allotments, and people growing food on the rooftops of London during World War Two."
Middlesbrough Council commissioned a map from designers Andre Viljoen and Katrina Bohn - authors of Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes - which identifies existing and prospective foodgrowing sites in Middlesbrough. It details existing allotments in the town, maps surplus land and highlights connections between the town and local food producers. This is a plan for the local authority and others to consider as a new context for strategies towards a more local and sustainable food economy. (see Designs of the Time and see below on Middlesborough)
Rob Hopkins' review of Andre Viljoen's book on continuous productive urban landscape says "it is a hugely readable, passionate and visionary book. It aims to put productive land use at the centre of urban design. ... He advocates creating networks of green spaces throughout the city (he takes London as his case study), which are connected by cycle paths and walkways, which combine urban agriculture, recreation and a wealth of other uses. ...a book of the most profound importance at this point in history...We should view our cities as much in terms of being productive spaces as we view our rural areas...." See review.April 17 2008 ~ A system integrating good housing to landscape, conservation of natural resources - a very practical design system. Permaculture.
The video about permaculture by Bill Mollison, the movement's co-founder, takes the viewer through its history and developments. The video begins dramatically with a plane dropping food parcels onto a parched landscape - the commentary:
"When the Western world sees food drops for the starving of Africa we think it will never happen to us, but there's a man in Australia who says that's where we're heading..."
You can watch it free on the internet 'In Grave Danger of Falling Food' Amazingly, it was made almost twenty years ago,April 11 2008 ~ "people want to make it a mainstream activity"
A recent Guardian article suggests very seriously that the growing of fruit and vegetables in town-centre planters and parks could be a blueprint for the future
"....Groundwork South Tees advised schools, mental health hospitals, residential care homes and retailers on planting and growing many varieties of herbs, vegetables and fruit. Containers of different sizes were used so people could cultivate whatever space they had.
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, knows as well as anyone that the era of cheap food in the UK is over, and that the nation is "sleepwalking into a crisis". With rising oil and food prices the idea of urban farming in the UK is of vital importance - but the fundamental problem is that so much land has ended up in the hands of private developers.
Middlesbrough borough council turned over parkland, town-centre planters and other landholdings for fruit and vegetable growing. The eight-month project culminated in a town meal outside the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where up to 8,000 people shared meals from the food that had been grown.
This year, Middlesbrough plans to supply seeds and containers to anyone interested, and already has 2,000 individuals and groups lined up, including 31 out of 51 schools, with 280 growing sites."Sunday April 6 2008 ~ Staring down the barrel of a crisis
"It's time to abandon the cruise ship of empire in exchange for a lifeboat... to trust in ourselves, our neighbors and the Earth that sustains us all." Guy R. McPherson is a professor of conservation biology at the University of Arizona. His article today in the Arizona Republic pulls no punches about what he feels will be the inevitable result of the end of Cheap Oil.
"You can kiss goodbye groceries at the local big-box grocery store: Our entire system of food production and delivery depends on cheap oil. .... We have come to depend on cheap oil for the delivery of food, water, shelter and medicine. Most of us are incapable of supplying these four key elements of personal survival.... On the other hand, the forthcoming cessation of economic growth is truly good news for the world's species and cultures.... Our individual survival, and our common future, depends on our ability to quickly make other arrangements. ..a personal challenge..."
See also warmwell Transition Town page.April 3 2008 ~ The National Conference for Transition Towns is to be held in Cirencester next weekend
We're grateful for the information that this will take place at the Agricultural College (just outside Cirencester on the Tetbury road) The energetic Green MEP,Caroline Lucas, is in the area and will be addressing the Conference on Friday. Then she will going on to talk in Stroud about the future of food production- and will be conveyed round the area in one of the Stroud Valley Car Club motors. The Transition Network conference takes place in Cirencester from 11-13 April 2008. It will run from lunchtime on Friday 11 April to midday on Sunday 13 April. The conference ".. is designed for people involved in a transition initiative in their locale or who are "mulling over" whether to start one up. There will be workshops, Open Spaces, World Cafés, presentations, discussions, dancing and maybe even a soccer match. The aim is to help people learn how to broaden, deepen and accelerate their initiative, and connect with people to share ideas, inspiration and experiences." The conference programme and content are almost complete.
April 3 2008 ~ Top-down does not work
The success of the Transition Town lies in its evolutionary process - starting with the enthusiasm of communities taking matters into their own hands and watching in awe at what so quickly starts to take shape because of all the various local skills and talents available. The "Transition Handbook" by Rob Hopkins is an antidote to the way top-down government works.
"It's a question of unleashing the collective genius around you.. ...unless we can create this sense of anticipation, elation and a collective call to adventure on a wider scale, any government responses will be doomed to failure, or will need to battle protractedly against the will of the people..... ."
So it is with a sigh that we read in today's Telegraph:"Ministers have drawn up plans to force through the development of 10 eco-towns despite widespread local opposition..."
The eco-towns proposed - and what "eco" means in this context is rather hard to fathom - include poor Throckmorton, in Worcestershire. (recent posts on the Transition movement) See also update in Guardian And as Charles Clover says in the Telegraph, "The fact remains that it would be more eco-friendly not to build these eco-towns at all."April 2 2008 ~ "a real grass roots movement that is inspiring people to get involved.."
/icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/ today on the spread of Transition towns, in which communities "focus on sustainability through renewable energy, allotments and farming but also aim to explore possibilities of water supply, waste recycling" - and "new economics" in the form of localisation of currency. Transition Town Llandeilo is following in the footsteps of Totnes. "Local currency puts money back into local businesses whereas ordinary money takes it out."
The US organisation, BerkShares, Inc., a non-profit organisation in the Southern Berkshire region of Massachusetts, say on their website,"....people who choose to use the currency make a conscious commitment to buy local first. They are taking personal responsibility for the health and well-being of their community by laying the foundation of a truly vibrant, thriving local economy."
March 31 2008 ~ Back to the backyard - not simply because it's fun but for our economic survival
Peak Oil is a turning point for society - and denial is getting harder for politicians (especially when even the Archers are discussing "going Transition"with such conviction). Transporting food over vast distances is simply not going to be possible for much longer.
An Australian permaculture advocate, David Holmgren, echoes some of the convictions of the Transition Town movement in this interesting and optimistic podcast clip about backyard production. "A modern fusion that also involves water re-use, solar design, more use of trees and integrating animals into that too.....Chickens forage in a healthy system based on organic methods of soil building and waste recycling.... in this world of less energy, we have to redesign everything we do."March 27/28 2008 ~ Peak oil' meeting in Taunton
www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk There will be a talk on Peak Oil, Climate Change and Transition Towns:"...Transition Towns aims to work with Somerset communities to make positive moves to increase resilience to falling oil levels. Victoria Watson and Mike McGuffie are holding the meeting at Silver Street Baptist Church at 7.30pm on Monday, March 31. The problem, the solution and the way forward'. Ms Watson said: "We are looking to reach out to all those people who are concerned by these issues and want to contribute in some way to working towards a better future for all of us."...."
March 27 2008 ~ "Middlesbrough borough council turned over parkland, town-centre planters and other landholdings for fruit and vegetable growing.
The eight-month project culminated in a town meal outside the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where up to 8,000 people shared meals from the food that had been grown.
... The Middlesbrough project may set an important example to other towns if rampant food inflation continues unabated. The past year has seen riots and food shortages in countries including Mexico, Italy and India, with the UN last month noting problems in urban areas that have previously been immune from food insecurity.
A lack of food may seem unthinkable in the UK, where supermarket shelves groan under the variety on offer. But the Office for National Statistics last month reported the highest ever recorded rise in the price of food. The cost of vegetables, for example, has risen by more than 6% in 12 months..." GuardianMarch 27 2008 ~ Transition Towns: " We've got to reduce our dependence on oil.....And you're expecting the whole of Ambridge to get involved?"
Listen again to The Archers last Monday - and UPDATE we now hear from an amazed listener (March 28) that " the whole of Ambridge is going Transition..."
Pat Archer: Definitely the whole of Ambridge and other villages. Most of the places doing it are Transition Towns. There are a few villages. .... In Stroud they're setting up a community bike scheme ….
"Tony thinks it's a good idea" and it's good to see that the writers of the Archers think so too.
Kathy Perks : It sounds amazing - still think you'll have a job selling it to the whole village.
Pat Archer: Well I'm going to carry on and see how far I can get.March 27 2008 ~ Green MEP Caroline Lucas, will be visiting Stroud on Friday, April 11th.
In the evening she will be speaking alongside Stroud Parliamentary candidate Martin Whiteside and Nick Weir from Transition Stroud at the Subscription Rooms. The theme of the evening will be 'The Future of Food' The evening begins at 7.30. There is no charge for entrance, but a small donation towards the hire of the room would be appreciated.
March 27 2008 ~ "Economic contraction may be bitter medicine, but it's part of the cure for what ails our planetary home."
We are now at the end of an unprecedented period of abundance that has been dependent upon temporary sources of cheap energy. Are we finally waking up to the need for a wholly different mindset? Richard Heinberg in his article "Making the most of a global depression" takes a long cool look at the reality of the present situation - but finishes with upbeat good sense:
: "....we can manage this contraction either foolishly or intelligently.
Read in full. Richard Heinberg is the author of "The Party's Over" and "Peak Everything." He is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute .
A foolish management of economic contraction would entail burning the biosphere for alternative fuels; propping up the banks and other financial institutions that created the mortgage mess....
Intelligent management would start with an explicit commitment to redesign the global economy to run with less... assess ecosphere resources and identify a humane, equitable path toward gradual reduction in population and total consumption levels. ... re-acquaint ourselves with the values and virtues of community, self-sufficiency, and modesty....educating a new generation of ecological farmers...."March 25/26 2008 ~ "The Great Turning" - the Ecological or Sustainability Revolution
A "positive energy" conference is taking place this week at the Findhorn Foundation (recently found to have the lowest ecological footprint ever measured in the industrialised world) For those who have not been able to attend the full week, the last two days of the conference, this Thursday and Friday, can be attended as a mini-event: From Crisis to Opportunity at which the speakers include Richard Heinberg, one of the world's foremost peak oil educators:
"Let us accept the current challenge - the next great energy transition - as an opportunity to re-imagine human culture from the ground up, using our intelligence and our passion for the welfare of coming generations and for the integrity of nature's web as our primary guides ."
and Rob Hopkins, founder of Transition Town Totnes (see below), the first transition town project in the UK.March 25 2008 ~ France's "decision was a victory for environmentalists and for farmers opposed to gene-modification technology"
The Conseil d'Etat has upheld the ban on MON810 (see below). Judge Jean-Marie Delarue evidently felt that the committee of French specialists who had, in January, called for more studies on the product's safety, should not be ignored. The New York Times commented that proponents of the GM maize said that allowing plantings of the gene-altered seed "could benefit consumers at a time of rising food prices." However, a analytical study (pdf) conducted last year by Greenpeace raised "far-reaching questions about the safety and the technical quality of the MON810 plants as well as some fundamental methodological questions."
March 20 2008 ~David Cameron "Britain risks food shortages and rocketing prices unless we begin to grow more of our own produce."
In a speech at the centenary conference of the National Farmers' Union in London, Mr Cameron said that the increase in the consumption of meat means that farmers now feed 250m more tonnes of grain to their animals than they did 20 years ago. The nation's "food security" must be guarded as jealously as that of our independent fuel supply.
"We face the potential prospect that the abundance of food that we all take for granted will come to a crashing end. Yet just as we are relying, indeed we are depending more and more on foreign farmers to fill our shopping bags, cupboards and fridges, so the days of abundant food from around the world may well be coming to an end"
One wonders what a Conservative Minister would do in government and whether there would again be a Ministry that watched over the needs of farming, food and rural affairs. All the same, the Transition Towns movement (see below) shows convincingly that a consideration of urban food growing may now be almost as urgently needed as concern for sustainable rural farms.March 18 2008 ~"It's a question of unleashing the collective genius around you..."
Changing our assumptions and values about what a truly sustainable society looks like seems well overdue - and the efforts of the Transition Towns movement gives more hope than much of the hot air emanating from Westminster or Brussels. (Watch Rob Hopkins on You Tube on the subject of the end of cheap energy, Peak Oil and the UK. He is impressive.) There can be no doubt that we are in trouble. The FAO's food price index has rocketed up by almost 40 per cent this year. International wheat prices are up 50 per cent on last year's. As for the end of cheap energy, the Press Association reports
"...Crude oil prices rose to new highs near to 112 US dollars a barrel yesterday, forcing the cost of petrol at the forecourts up to 106.7p a litre, with diesel at 113.9p, according to latest figures from the AA. ....."
Meanwhile, economic growth continues to be the myth that prevails and the UK watches its ability to feed itself decline with apparent complacency, continuing to import cheap food from countries that are themselves getting more and more concerned about the rise in prices.March 16/17 2008 ~ Let them eat biofuel...?
It is good to see Christopher Booker squaring up to the departed Chief Scientific Adviser in Beware the politician posing as a scientist in the current week's Spectator. Climate change was proclaimed by Sir David King to be "a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism" - but the UN World Food Program (WFP) is now saying,
"the increasing scarcity of food is the biggest crisis looming in the world"
and yet more and more agricultural land is being turned over to the production of crops used to manufacture biofuels, such as ethanol. Last week, the new CSA, Professor Beddington, commented (Guardian), that the food crisis was more urgent and serious than climate change - yet as Caroline Lucas says, the policymakers in neither Brussels nor Westminster have any workable or acceptable plans in place. They continue to seem in denial of what is apparent to so many of us. And even though David Cameron too was reported (last Sunday's Herald) to have said, "You could feed a person for a whole year from the grain that produces just one tank of fuel for a sports utility vehicle"- none of the major parties in traditional politics seems able to galvanise people towards practical solutions. In contrast, the highly interesting Treehugger website, another enthusastic supporter of the Transition Town Movement, offer what they term, "some humble suggestions of potential solutions":"... high-tech solutions like vertical farming or underground agriculture and aquaponics may be useful in reducing pressures on land, and distances from farm to plate. Meanwhile low tech DIY approaches like permaculture, food not lawns, DIY hydroponics and community gardens are ways that we can all make a difference.... hats off to Professor Beddington for setting this on his agenda."
March 16/17 2008 ~ In glorious contrast to our politicians and ever more chaotic Ministries..
...the launch of the latest Transition Town, Forest Row in Sussex, demonstrates anything but complacent inaction. Green MEP Caroline Lucas (see You Tube), in her message of enthusiastic support for the Transition Town movement, had this to say about rebuilding the infrastructure to revitalise local food economies:
"....Over half the food imported in 2002 was indigenous produce...it could have been sourced in this country, could have been grown in the UK's temperate climate...it would be much easier if we had changes to the rules of the EU Single Market and the World Trade Organisation, but it is also true that there is much that we as individuals and communities can do ourselves..to begin to power down, to become less dependent on fossil fuels and more dependent on each other"
February 20 2008 ~ "We are trying to look at what the town can do to make a buffer for itself so when all the oil starts to run out we're more prepared..."
The little Devonshire town of Seaton (See Devon 24 today) is just one example of a grass roots initiative to raise awareness that "So much of life is dependent on oil, from cars to toothpaste; everything you touch has involved oil at some point..." Sustainable Seaton, like many other embryonic groups around the country, has had its efforts recognised by the Transition Network:
"Transition Initiatives Primer .... constantly updated (currently v.25) document is 50 pages in length, jampacked with sparkling nuggets of plagiarised brilliance and one exceedingly boring (but necessary) section. .."
The jargon-free, non-political, sheer good sense of the 50 page "primer" from Transition Network provides an enlightened counterweight to ponderous and self-congratulatory DefraSpeak - and it also provides a lucid introduction to peak oil (warmwell.com has run an oil depletion page since 2004). It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the real and urgent issues of the day are being tackled in spite of government.
NO Ford Eco Town: join the campaign
This eco town is not as “eco” as is being suggested. This is an example of what is being called "green-wash" - a cynical attempt to use environmental concern to push through schemes of dubious merit for political advantage. For background on this story, read here. (www.theargus.co.uk)
Ford is not a brownfield site. 87% of the land is greenfield farmland - i.e. land actively used for agriculture that can grow local food instead of disappearing under concrete. Time is short...
We understand that you have until 30 June 2008 to register opposition by letter. Or write an email registering your opposition to :
ecotowns@communities.gsi.gov.uk
or:
pscarolineflint@communities.gsi.gov.uk it would be very much appreciated. The following points have been suggestedIf you would care to sign the Downing St online petition go to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/No-Ford-Eco-Town/
FORD ECO-TOWN PROPOSAL
TO ALL CONCERNED
Six reasons why an 'eco town' at Ford would be a disaster.... please put in your OWN words
1) The Wrong Location - We will lose our villages (and countryside) and become one huge town.
2) The destruction of greenfield land, making up 87% of the area involved. All surrounding fields becoming housing - up to 10,000 houses, possibly 15,000 or more. Concreting over one of the last green spaces of coast, destroying prime arable land, at time of rising prices of food.
3) Our roads, schools, hospitals and water supplies are already under huge strain - We don't have the infrastructure to support 5,000+ new homes. All our utilities will have to be torn up to increase capacity. There will be a HUGE increase in traffic levels through our local area.
4) An anaerobic ‘disaster’ being built using all the county's household organic waste matter, along with sewage sludge, agricultural and abattoir organic waste, industrial and hospital organic waste to name a few sources.
5) A town this size needs major local government investment to provide extra waste collection, more doctors, teachers, police, improved utilities, etc. This has not been accounted for to date.
6) An ‘Eco Con’ not an eco town. Developers had already been promoting a new town at Ford. The new 'eco' label is a CON - pure window dressing. We are told that half of all the new houses will not use cars. So how will they travel in West Sussex? And how do you build houses in the middle of a windswept plain, next to the sea – not ecologically sound.
Please write or email, to register your opposition to : ecotowns@communities.gsi.gov.uk
or: pscarolineflint@communities.gsi.gov.uk
Rt Hon Caroline Flint MP
Minister for Housing and Planning
Department for Communities and Local Government
Eland House, Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DU
And
Mrs Julie Bishop
Eco-Towns Team
Housing and Growth Programmes
Communities and Local Government
2/H9 Eland House, Bressenden Place
London, SW1E 5DU
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