Friday, May 01, 2009
First published : CASCET
The Campaign Against the Stoughton Co-op Eco-town (CASCET1) has responded to the Government’s consultation on their draft eco-town Planning Policy Statement (PPS).
CASCET have questioned the need for a separate PPS relating to eco-towns claiming very little is not already reflected in existing guidance, such as PPS1 (and its supplement: Planning and Climate Change) and PPS3, or could be with some slight amendments.
CASCET also conclude that specific eco-town exemplars should not be identified in a PPS citing a growing body of legal opinion that the Government’s eco-town proposals (as now embodied in the draft PPS) are inconsistent with the intention of Parliament as expressed through current planning legislation.
Dr Kevin Feltham, chairman of CASCET, said, “We have taken on board the advice from our legal advisers and ensured the response to the consultation can be used as evidence should we start our own challenge to seek a judicial review to stop the proposed eco-town location south-east of Leicester.
“Leicestershire County Council, and other organisations such as the Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, are opposed to the Co-op’s proposals for a 15,000 home eco-town joining onto Great Glen and Oadby, calling them unworkable and unviable.
“The top-down approach by the Government is completely unnecessary, because the local situation can best be promulgated through local development frameworks and the regional spatial strategy review. Government Ministers frequently state that the lack of affordable housing is one of the drivers for the eco-towns programme, yet a recent Housing Conference in Leicester demonstrated quite clearly that lack of investment for builders to develop the existing 19,000 approved plots in Leicestershire is a far greater problem.”
You can download the CASCET Draft Eco Town PPS Response in PDF format.