Eco-town strategy suffers fresh blow

By Daniel Thomas, Property Correspondent
Published: July 18 2008 02:42

Plans to create a network of “eco-towns” suffered another blow on Thursday after one of the landowners of a high-profile potential site near Cambridge pulled out.
The Wellcome Trust, the medical research charity, has decided not to proceed with the proposal to develop an environmentally friendly community on the Hanley Grange site, where it owns 270 acres.

The decision throws doubt on the feasibility of the Hanley Grange project and is a fresh knock to ministers’ plans to promote the development of 10 eco-towns – the first new towns for 40 years.
The 12,000-home scheme, proposed by a company called Jarrow Investments, which owns much of the remaining land and is acting for supermarket giant Tesco, has met fierce local opposition. Wellcome Trust said it had given “very careful consideration to the approach” but decided not to go ahead. It offered no further details.
Matt Bradney, a Cambridgeshire county councillor, said: “This represents a major blow to the plans for an eco-town at Hanley Grange as it reduces the land by a third.” The council opposes the project.
Nick West, project director for Hanley Grange, said: “The project team will now look at the potential options for moving forward, but no decisions have yet been made.”
Several proposed sites on a shortlist of 15 have already been withdrawn, including Marston Vale in Bedfordshire, Curborough in Staffordshire and Manby in Lincolnshire. The government plans to pick 10 towns from the shortlist.
Many of the proposed sites are on greenfield land, raising the hackles of local campaigners and many councils. Critics have also suggested the proposals are no more than traditional housing schemes with a green tag, since there is still uncertainty about what eco-towns will offer above the government’s plans for all housing to be zero-carbon by 2016.
A decision on the eco-town shortlist has been delayed until early next year.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008