Housing & Eco Towns - Weston Otmoor Eco Town
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CPRE supports the aspiration for more sustainable, affordable housing, but for eco-towns to be truly sustainable, exemplar schemes they must be built and planned in the right way and send a compelling message about the way forward. CPRE Oxfordshire led a concerted campaign against the proposed eco-town arguing that ‘Weston Otmoor' was a smokescreen for making house-building on green fields appear more palatable’.
Eco-Towns Programme
Eco-Towns are a government-sponsored programme of new towns to be built in England, which are intended to achieve exemplary standards of sustainability.
The eco-towns programme was intended to offer the opportunity to achieve high standards of sustainable living while also maximising the potential for affordable housing. Some 30% to 40% of housing in each eco-town is to be allocated as affordable, and made available to the thousands currently on the local housing waiting lists.
The largest will provide up to 20,000 new homes, with officials saying the towns should be "zero-carbon" developments and should be exemplary in one area of sustainability, such as energy production or waste disposal. The new environmentally-friendly towns - low-energy, carbon-neutral developments built from recycled materials - are intended to be largely car-free, with pedestrian and cycle-friendly environments.
In 2007, the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) announced a competition to build up to 10 eco-towns.
Initially over fifty eco-town bids were suggested, many of them modified versions of existing housing scheme proposals. The initial list of eco-towns included two in Oxfordshire; ‘Weston Otmoor’, a proposal for an eco-town of 15,000 homes near Weston-on-the-Green, and an eco-town of 5-10,000 homes in Shipton-on-Cherwell quarry, a developed (old cement works) site to the north of Kidlington.
In April 2008, a shortlist of fifteen sites was announced and included Weston Otmoor. The proposed eco-town at Shipton-on-Cherwell was dropped from the list.
The eco-towns programme was intended to offer the opportunity to achieve high standards of sustainable living while also maximising the potential for affordable housing. Some 30% to 40% of housing in each eco-town is to be allocated as affordable, and made available to the thousands currently on the local housing waiting lists.
The largest will provide up to 20,000 new homes, with officials saying the towns should be "zero-carbon" developments and should be exemplary in one area of sustainability, such as energy production or waste disposal. The new environmentally-friendly towns - low-energy, carbon-neutral developments built from recycled materials - are intended to be largely car-free, with pedestrian and cycle-friendly environments.
The eco-towns programme was intended to offer the opportunity to achieve high standards of sustainable living while also maximising the potential for affordable housing. Some 30% to 40% of housing in each eco-town is to be allocated as affordable, and made available to the thousands currently on the local housing waiting lists.
The largest will provide up to 20,000 new homes, with officials saying the towns should be "zero-carbon" developments and should be exemplary in one area of sustainability, such as energy production or waste disposal. The new environmentally-friendly towns - low-energy, carbon-neutral developments built from recycled materials - are intended to be largely car-free, with pedestrian and cycle-friendly environments.
Find Out More
Below are a list of links to further information regarding this campaign: