Queen and Charles join race to build government-sponsored ecotowns

· 5,000-home project from MoD and royal estate · Prince's foundation to advise on local input
James Meikle
The Guardian,
Wednesday July 9, 2008

The Queen and the Prince of Wales have joined the race to be part of the government's controversial ecotown scheme, with the crown estate acting as partner in a consortium that hopes to built a town of 5,000 houses near Nottingham.
Prince Charles's Foundation for the Built Environment has been asked to advise on the scheme's design and to try to ensure community involvement from the outset for the project.
The prince has been personally involved in the development of "more sustainable" communities. He set up the Poundbury development on Duchy of Cornwall land in Dorset a decade ago and is now helping develop a town with homes for 12,000 people at Sherford, near Plymouth, and a 4,000-home ecovillage near Neath, Wales. His foundation has also advised government bodies developing "urban extensions" to existing towns.
The crown estate, which manages a £7bn portfolio of the Queen's property and gives its revenue to the Treasury, has joined up with the MoD and the company Newton Nottingham LLP to develop property owned by the three around the former RAF base at Newton, near Bingham in Nottinghamshire.
The site replaces another previously selected, at nearby Kingston on Soar, the suitability of which was questioned by civil servants. The Guardian understands the government's housing department approached the landowners to see if they would put together an outline proposal.
Details remain sketchy at this stage because the partners in the scheme claim they want to involve the local community from the start. But the proposals include discounted public transport passes for residents, car-free areas and restricted parking zones, food and biomass fuel production, home-based offices, and business units for local graduates. Two or three primary schools are planned as well as "significant levels" of low-cost and social housing for rent.
Nick Harper, head of asset management and development for the crown, speaking for all the landowners, said: "We are keen to engage with residents and politicians to hear more about their ideas and aspirations and hope that our initial assessment will provide a sound platform on which an informed debate can be taken forward."
Hank Dittmar, chief executive of The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, said stand-alone towns had to meet several principles for true sustainability. "We would be looking for a genuine mix of types of homes, jobs and amenities, such that everyday needs could be met within a five-minute walk ... we're interested in evolving vernacular building traditions - by which we mean building methods and materials that are synonymous with a particular area - to meet 21st century challenges of post peak oil, climate change and population growth."
In the past fortnight three developers have dropped out of building ecotowns. Gallagher Estates, which is behind one of two overlapping bids to create an ecotown south of Bedford, became the latest developer to withdraw.
The Guardian revealed yesterday that a consortium behind an ecotown at Curborough, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, had quit, while East Lindsey district council, in Lincolnshire, last month pulled out from a list of 17 shortlisted bids for 15 sites. Now there are only 13 sites left from which the government intends to select five to 10 ecotown projects.
Tories, whose pledge is to scrap any ecotown plans not enjoying local support, claim the wheels are coming off the government's scheme as many of the bids have fallen short on green credentials.