Archived press release

Date Published: 07/04/08

Aylesbury Vale District Council has welcomed the government’s decision to reject bids to build ‘eco-towns’ in the district.

Development firm Greenway Land LLP had submitted a proposal to the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to build a community of around 5,300 new homes on the site of the disused Little Horwood airfield near Winslow. A proposal for a second eco-town at Westcott was submitted by Rockspring Hanover Property Unit Trust.
Housing Minister Caroline Flint announced on 3 April that both bids had failed to make the shortlist for the next stage of the eco-towns programme.
Council planners had expressed concerns over the scale of this additional development, pointing out that the district already has to accommodate nearly 27,000 new homes by 2026, including a Milton Keynes overspill of over 5,000 dwellings in the Newton Longville area.
Councillor Carole Paternoster, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, said: “We are very pleased that the government has not included these two site bids in their shortlist of 15 potential eco-towns. The principle of using sustainable construction techniques to build sustainable communities is to be applauded. However, the number of houses in an eco-town would be in addition to the large number of houses already allocated to Aylesbury Vale. The growth agenda already means we have to deliver a large number of houses at Aylesbury and near Newton Longville. An eco-town would have put an intolerable burden on the Vale’s infrastructure.”
The government has said it wants to build five eco-towns by 2016 and up to ten by 2020 as part of ambitious plans to build three million homes by 2020. Fifteen potential locations will go forward to the next stage of the eco-towns programme, including Marston Vale/New Marston between Milton Keynes and Bedford and Weston Otmoor near Bicester.
The suggested style of towns are of between 5,000 and 20,000 homes, and would attempt to create communities with no carbon emissions using sustainable materials and renewable energy sources.