Government risks 'losing the plot' over eco-towns, warns top architect

By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 18/07/2008

One of Britain's most high profile architects has warned the Government it risks "losing the plot" over its plans for up to 10 new eco-towns.
Sunand Prasad, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), warned ministers must not view the controversial developments purely as a way of meeting housing demand.
He told The Daily Telegraph that once eco-towns were seen as a way of meeting housing targets, then "you've lost the plot".
Ministers are to pick up to 10 locations for eco-towns from an original shortlist of 15 sites across the country. Each will contain thousands of homes. But opposition to the developments - many of which are planned for greenfield sites in rural areas such as west Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire - has been vociferous, with critics claiming the proposals are little more than an attempt to "greenwash" plans for a massive expansion of housebuilding.
John Nettles, the actor, has accused Gordon Brown of damaging England's heritage over plans for an eco-town near his country home near Stratford-upon-Avon, claiming they would turn the area into a "Milton Keynes II" and "suffocate" the home of Shakespeare. Dame Judi Dench is also opposed to the plans.
Mr Prasad made his comments at the launch of a landmark exhibition on the life and work of the controversial architect Le Corbusier. The Swiss-born Modernist architect was instrumental in shaping British post-war urban planning, even though he never designed a permanent building here.
The architect, who said homes should be "machines for living", has been accused of giving birth to an inhuman physical landscape of lofty tower blocks and dark stairwells which many blame for fostering the social decline of the inner city.
Mr Prasad defended Le Corbusier's legacy but said politicians risked repeating the mistakes of the past if they focused on meeting targets to the detriment of architectural excellence.
He explained: "I think there's always a problem of poor imitation. It seems completely unfair to me to blame the genius Le Corbusier for the poverty of imitation. "We are about to embark on the same thing - it's the targets and numbers culture, which is what politicians do."
Turning to the Government's next big planning project, he said: "If you think of eco-towns as the solution to the numbers game, you've lost the plot.
"They will only account for four per cent of projected housing demand." Rather, eco-towns should be smaller-scale "test-beds" for green living, he said.
"They are, or should be, a potential solution to future low-carbon living. They should be seen as trials and test beds for the future.
"I'm in favour of three of four - with local support - and I'm optimistic that we will have that."
His comments came as eco-towns received a fresh blow, with the medical charity The Wellcome Trust pulling out of a plan to develop one of the remaining 13 shortlisted sites. It had planned to sell 270 acres at Hanley Grange in Cambridgeshire, where up to 11,000 homes were planned for a total site of 927 acres.
The Wellcome Trust said it had decided not to proceed after giving "very careful consideration to the approach".
Developers for eco-towns in Marston Vale in Bedfordshire, Curborough in Staffordshire, Selby in North Yorkshire, and Manby in Lincolnshire, have also withdrawn their bids. A further two of the 15 proposed sites are also in doubt as developers are reviewing their plans.
Mr Prasad added he was "optimistic" about the direction ministers were now taking on eco-towns, having sat on a panel to discuss their development. He said: "They started off on the wrong foot, but the signs are optimistic."