Eco-town plan in disarray as sites fail to meet targets

Jill Sherman, Whitehall Editor

Gordon Brown’s eco-town programme was in disarray last night with only one of 12 shortlisted sites meeting the Government’s criteria.
Rural campaigners and opposition parties demanded a halt to the scheme, which has enraged residents across the country. The policy has been beset with difficulties in the past year as developers and councils have pulled out of the zero-carbon schemes, which are expensive to build and depend on huge infrastructure support.
Three projects have already been withdrawn, and Margaret Beckett, the Housing Minister, has now vetoed another in Leeds, suggesting that it should be a pilot for an urban eco-community instead. Only three of the 12 have local council backing and the Local Government Association is threatening legal action over the failure to follow planning procedures.
But Mrs Beckett confounded critics and angered town halls by pressing ahead with the scheme yesterday and adding two more sites – in Oxford and Norwich. Rackheath, near Norwich, has been propelled to the top of the shortlist as the only site with a grade A for its suitability for an eco-town site. The other, at northwest Bicester, Oxfordshire, has been put forward as an alternative to Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire (given the lowest grade C) after a protest campaign by Tony Henman, Tim Henman’s father.

The remaining ten proposed towns were given B ratings, suggesting that they could be suitable locations “subject to planning and design objectives”. They include many of the schemes that have been strongly opposed, such as Ford, West Sussex; Middle Quinton, Warwickshire; and Pennbury, Leicestershire.
The Conservatives claimed yesterday that Mrs Beckett had moved the goalposts for building eco-towns and altered the list in an attempt to keep the project alive. She has also delayed any announcement of the final shortlist until March or April by announcing a second consultation to cover the 12 schemes outlined yesterday.