Eco Towns - 2000 people a day sign petitions against them, what do you think?

[alittleone2]

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We ahve big protest here at the momnet. Posters, petitions marches.

They are planning to build a big eco town that will basically fill in the large area of arable farm land between three old villages, making them all merge.

It's a load of shite. It's just big developers trying to gain support by waving the eco flag. It is no different to the other huge building projects going on around here. Thousands of new homes being built and they are going to close our hospital - nice one!

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Eco-towns are bad imo. They are just an excuse to whack up loads of crap housing on greenfield sites as quickly as possible. They are about as environmentally friendly as coal-fired power stations.

Totally agree Mehgalegs - are you referring to the disused airfield site (plus loads of greenfield) at Ford?

Yes, Idling, the so called Ford Eco-Town. Are you down this way too?

A good friend of mine is organising the march. She is in a beautiful spot, very rural but the current plans will surround her house on three sides .

It is such a crazy idea. The roads can't handle the traffic as it is. The schools are full, the Doctors are full, they are closing the A&E and maternity services at Chichester, many of the village post offices are closing. It's the same old arguments and yes, I do sound a bit like a Daily Mail reading NIMBY but it beggars belief that the government will let 5,000 new homes be built on greenfield land just because they are "eco - homes". With no new infrastructure, it will be chaos.

I don't understand how these plans work at all?

Yes Mehgalegs - I'm down here and been fighting to stop 2000 homes near us - but now this is a whole new can of worms especially as it would appear to be additional to the quota the council already has to get built. The hospital decision beggars belief too. They probably think everyone in the 5000 new houses will go to Worthing on public transport
My dp has got involved with the protest group writing them a protest song!

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I suppose you are all anti-immigration?

If you are not, and you are against building on green field sites, are you happy with the idea that younger generations must accept a reduced quality of life? More and more people cramed into cities, towns and villages that are not allowed expand means less space for everyone.

Are we to raise our families in shoe-box 1 bed flats with no storage space?

No Upwind - I am against the building of thousands of houses in areas which lack the infrastructure to support them. The proposed developments around here would join up the villages into one giant urban sprawl. Our local primary schools are over-subscribed as are the secondary schools. The main road is frequently at gridlock and all attempts to improve that situation are blocked by some very wealthy aristo landowners.
The Government is obsessed with concreting over the south (especially all 'true blue' counties). What they really need to do is move jobs away from London so that building happens where there is the space.

Fair points idlingabout

I think Upwind has a good point here as I can see both sides of the problem. My brother lives near the proposed site of one of these eco towns, and he is not happy since he likes to live in the countryside and it is a lovely environment. So I agree with him that it shouldn't be built.

However, I live in a city and, much as I would love more open space here, I find that houses have been demolished to built blocks of flats and the size of housing in cities seems to be smaller and smaller.

Why should city dwellers be confined to tiny spaces, when rurual dwellers are able to enjoy such a lovely life style?

However, I also believe that these "ecotowns" would be built to the currently appalling standards of most newbuilds with a tiny backyard and paper thin walls. So really, we are just creating cities in the country.

FWIW, I don't believe that they will be built at all as with house prices falling, housebuilders are battening down the hatches and won't want to be involved in building loss making estates.

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Because if you argue that building on the greenbelt should be verboten, you are either in favour of reduced quality of life or reduced population levels. There are no nice easy answers to this problem

"There are empty houses in every town"

There was a documentary about this recently, they tried to find out why the houses were empty and there were various reasons but mostly they were owned by elderly people in nursing homes. Do you think that these properties should be confiscated?

The other measures you mention would not improve availability of housing for those in need.

I agree we should look at existing housing stock first before new builds but the issue remains that there is a shortage of housing where people actually want to live, where there are jobs etc.

I don't think ecotowns are that 'eco' because the resources used to build themwould be better used in improving inner city stock. By far the most efficient way to live is in a city with good transport links the ability to get to work/ school by public transport - efficent use of space and energy.

However people in Britain want to live in a house with a garden - preferably in the south east as that is where the jobs and wealth are conentrated - that is not possible without increased building on existing brown and greenfield sites.

People are forced to live out of the city by costs/ desire for better quality of life and drive/ train into the urban centre to work - that is not at all environmentally friendly. So the reality is until a city centre is somewhere people want to live and unless the North radically regenerates economically. The south east is faced with a growing population that has to be accommodated and perhaps an eco town is the best of a bad situ?

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alittleone, I did not see the panorama episode you are talking about. But it seems really weird to me that landlords in Birmingham are collectively so stupid that they would have large amounts of rental voids. Being a landlord is a business, and if these properties were really available to rent they would be forced to drop the price or start accepting dss.

Many buy-to-let mortgages stipulate that you cannot have dss tenants though.

'Bigmouth..' your point about the concentration of jobs in the south east is the problem and is what is holding back regeneration in the north. Perhaps the government and the stock market should move to be Midlands based so that the power base is more accessible to all parts of the country.

The swallowing up of more fields is just wrong. We need fields to grow food, which is already becoming more expensive. More land under tarmac will result in more flooding.

I completely agree that we need to fill empty properties in towns first. Possibly even insist that some weekend cottages are used more efficiently. It can't be right for one house to stand empty for 49 weeks of the year in an area where there are housing shortages.

The government is moving jobs out of the South East, by the thousand, because of the myth that London is the same as The South East.

We are in the (south east) town that John Prescott decreed could take 30,000 new houses. We have people flocking here from everywhere else in the UK, blocking the roads, taking the best school places and basically shoving out the people who have lived here for generations and are on wages that are a fraction of London wages.

I'm all for somewhere else being regenerated instead. Never heard of an eco town though.

Anti - immigration? WTF?

And I totally agree with idlingabouts post of 04-Jun-08 12:11:04 Weds.

As well as plans for the eco town there are three other huge housing developments underway in this area, several just completed and another 400 homes may be developed down on the coast if planning permission is given.

The people that plan these ridiculous schemes need to come and spend some time down this way and just see how the infrastrucuture is already near breaking point in this area.

IMO eco towns are just another way of the government appearing to be very "green" when in fact it's just a load of the same old same old dressed up to appear that they are meeting eco targets. It's the same with bio fuels. Food prices up because arable land is being used to grow bio fuel crops not to mention the world wide implications of deforestation caused by growing of crops for bio fuels.

If a poor infrastructure is the problem, maybe you should complain about that rather than objecting to more homes being built.

Oh I have upwind as have many others around here. There has been talk of a relief road for years but it's not happening yet still they build the homes.

And I have no objections to new homes being built if they are built in the right place.

this tells the story far better than I can here

Plus the fact that DH and I now have to keep a flood diary recording just how many times we scoop raw sewage out of our garden each year after heavy rainfall - twice in the last 4 months. Hydraulic overload caused by the large volume of new homes built in the area in the last five years.