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Ecotowns
In 2008 the government announced
proposals for 10 ‘ecotowns’, to be
built in two phases: five by 2016 and
a further five by 2020. Ecotowns will
be small new towns of up to 20,000
homes. They are intended to exploit
the potential to create complete new
settlements which can achieve zero
carbon emission and more sustainable
living, using the best new design and
architecture. Ecotowns are known to
be the brainchild of Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, who sees them as a way
to balance increased housebuilding
with the needs of the environment.
The key features the government wants
to achieve are:
• places with separate and distinct
identities, but good links to
surrounding towns and cities
in terms of jobs, transport and
services;
• the developments as a whole to
achieve zero carbon emission and to
be exemplars in at least one area of
environment technology;
• a good range of facilities within
the towns, including a secondary
school, shopping, business space
and leisure;
• between 30 and 50 per cent
affordable housing with a good
mix of tenures and size of homes in
mixed communities; and
• a delivery organisation to manage
the town and its development
and provide support for people,
businesses and community services.
Figure 1: Proposed ecotown sites
Leeds City
Region
Rossington
Manby
Rushcliffe
Curborough
Coltishall
Pennbury
Henley
Middle Quinton
Marston
Grange
Weston
Elsenham
Otmoor
Imerys China Clay
Community
Bordon-Whitehill
Ford
The government is looking to
encourage and support local
authorities and the private sector
to bring forward around 10 new
schemes. The shortlist for the
‘ecotowns’ is:
• Pennbury, Leicestershire
• Manby and Strubby,
Lincolnshire
• Curborough, Staffordshire
• Middle Quinton, Warwickshire
• Bordon-Whitehill, Hampshire
• Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire
• Ford, West Sussex
• Imerys China Clay Community,
Cornwall
• Rossington, South Yorkshire
• Coltishall, Norfolk
• Hanley Grange, Cambridgeshire
• Marston Vale and New Marston,
Bedfordshire
• Elsenham, Essex
• Rushcliffe, Nottinghamshire
• Leeds City Region, Yorkshire.
These are shown on Figure 1.
Housing problems
Between 1970 and 2000 housebuilding
rates halved, while the
number of households grew by 30%.
The shortage of housing nationally
is a barrier to economic success
and a threat to services. Decreasing
affordability affects the ability of key
workers to live near their work. It
encourages unsustainable transport
systems.
The government is still committed
to the reuse of urban brownfield
sites, town centre renewal and urban
extensions. However, in some places
the supply of previously used town
centre sites is running low. There is
also demand for public space, leisure
facilities and jobs - not all land can go
for housing.
Potentially, new ecotowns could
play a significant role in easing the
affordability crisis, by ensuring that
between 30 and 50% of the new
housing is affordable. Nevertheless,
the government believes that any new
settlement must be of sufficient size
to ensure a good level of services, jobs
and community facilities, to create
attractive and sustainable places to
live.
January 2009
581
Garrett Nagle
The UK’s first generation of new
towns, built in the 1950s and
1960s, ranged in size from 20,000
to 55,000 people and were not selfsufficient.
They depended on large
cities, London in particular, for
employment. This led to large-scale
commuting, and that had a negative
impact on the physical environment.
Whether smaller ecotowns could
be economically self-sufficient
is therefore questionable. The
government also claim that there is
a need for adequate and sustainable
links to nearby larger towns and
cities. This could be interpreted as a
need for commuting to work.
Ecotowns - guiding
principles
The new ecotowns draw on historic
experience of garden cities. Ebenezer
Howard’s vision of garden cities
was of places which combined
‘the health of the country with the
comforts of the town’. Letchworth
was the first garden city (1903),
and was developed according to the
principles of Howard’s design for
new communities. This provided
well-designed houses with gardens
set in tree-lined avenues, and a
pleasant and healthy environment
in which to live, work and follow
leisure pursuits.
Key criteria
Ecotowns are a major opportunity
for local authorities, house builders,
developers and registered social
landlords to come together to build
small new towns. Ecotowns should
be well-designed, attractive places to
live, with good services and facilities,
and which connect well with the
larger towns or cities close by. The
essential requirements include:
• Ecotowns must be new
settlements, separate and distinct
from existing towns, but well
linked to them. They need to
be additional to existing plans,
with a minimum target of 5,000–
10,000 homes.
• The development as a whole
should reach zero carbon
standards, and each town
should be an exemplar in at
least one area of environmental
sustainability.
Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2009
GeoFile Series 27 Issue 2
Fig 581_01 Mac/eps/illustrator 11 s/s

January 2009 no.581 Ecotowns
Figure 2: Weston Otmoor
M40
Brownfield
MOD land
Akeman Street
M40
A41
Bicester
Weston-onthe-Green
Wendlebury
Junction 99
Weston-onthe-Green
Junction 9
A34
M40
Outer greenbelt
boundary
SSSI
A34
Potential area
of development
Railway line
• Ecotown proposals should
provide for a good range of
facilities within the town - a
secondary school, a mediumscale
retail centre, good quality
business space and leisure
facilities.
• Affordable housing should make
up between 30 and 50% of the
total through a wide range and
distribution of tenures in mixed
communities, with a particular
emphasis on larger family
homes.
• A management body will help
develop the town, provide
support for people moving to the
new community, for businesses
and to co-ordinate delivery of
services and manage facilities.
Key design aspects
1. Environment and carbon
• Incorporate renewable energy
systems such that not only
homes, but schools, shops, offices
and community facilities can
reach zero carbon standards, with
innovative town-scale generation
of renewable energy. Zero carbon
means no net carbon emissions
from all energy uses, so the
amount of energy taken from the
national grid is less than or equal
to the amount put back through
renewable technologies.
• Demonstrate excellence
in one particular aspect of
environmental sustainability
- for example technological
sustainability, such as more
advanced renewable and energyefficient
technologies, sustainable
urban drainage/wastewater
GeoFile Series 27 Issue 2
Fig 581_02 treatment/grey Mac/eps/illustrator water recycling 11 s/s or
NELSON waste management THORNES PUBLISHING systems.
• Artist: Planned David in Russell a way Illustration which supports
low carbon living and minimises
carbon emissions from transport.
• Incorporate high standards of
water efficiency.
• Incorporate environmentally
sustainable approaches to
managing waste, wastewater,
drainage and flooding.
• Integrate green space and
features to enhance biodiversity.
• Use construction methods and
materials which have a low
environmental impact and generate
minimum construction waste.
2. Design
• A commitment to high standards
of architecture and urban design.
3. Transport
• An area-wide travel plan should
be provided for each ecotown
scheme.
• High-quality public transport
links to reduce car dependency.
• Minimising the need to travel
by locating key public services
together.
• Management of demand through
traffic control measures and
giving priority to public transport
and high occupancy vehicles.
• Consideration of the impact on
roads and congestion when siting
the ecotown.
4. Community
• Community empowerment
– giving local people a part in the
decision-making process.
• Encourage active communities
by creating the conditions for
community participation and
involvement in civic activity.
5. Jobs as well as homes
• A clear economic strategy for the
town.
• Encourage working from home
through live/work units or in
local resource centres, supported
by wi-fi (wireless) and other
information technology (IT)
networks.
6. Health
• Promote healthy and sustainable
environments.
• Offer choices for healthy living.
7. Land use
• Schemes should make use of
suitable surplus public sector land
or brownfield land.
• Appropriate use of land in terms
of quality and mitigation of
impacts on biodiversity.
• Sustainable locations, which
relate well to existing networks of
surrounding towns and villages.
Ecotowns in Oxfordshire
Two separate schemes to build
major ecotowns near Kidlington
and also at Weston-on-the-Green
were submitted to the government.
Cherwell District Council’s
executive expressed concern about
the Weston-on-the-Green scheme
and the other ecotown proposal
to build 5,000 homes at Shipton
Quarry, a former cement works
between Woodstock and Bicester.
Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2009

January 2009 no.581 Ecotowns
A statement from the council said:
‘The two candidate locations offer some
advantages, such as the reuse of previously
developed land and the potential to
improve public transport.
But there are significant disadvantages,
including adverse effects upon the Green
Belt, effects upon rural roads, the impact
on nature conservation sites, the loss of
agricultural land and the impact on the
regeneration of existing towns.’
Weston Otmoor
A settlement of 15,000 new ecohomes
near Weston-on-the-Green
had made it on to the government
shortlist of 15 proposed schemes, 10
of which are expected to be built.
Stretching across two sides of the
A34, from Weston-on-the-Green in
the west to the M40 in the east, and
from RAF Weston-on-the-Green in
the north to the Oxford–Bicester
railway line in the south, the site
totals almost 2,000 acres (Figure 2).
According to the Weston Front
Action Group, ‘The village [Westonon-the-Green]
is resolved to defeat
the proposed plans for Weston
Otmoor by the developers Parkridge,
and the landowners who have sold
options.’ The fact that part of the
site is in the Green Belt and contains
a site of special scientific interest
has not put off the Government, nor
the fact that the massive site being
put forward is bisected by the trunk
road.
Parkridge, the developers, is partowned
by the global American
property company US Reit
ProLogics. What it wants to do in
Oxfordshire is build a settlement
bigger than Bicester that would be
home to 25,000 people, growing
eventually to 35,000, with 10 schools
(two secondary, eight primary) and
15,000 properties, offering a range of
dwelling types, including affordable
homes.
Parkridge already controls 1,600
acres of the site through options to
buy farmland from a consortium
of landowners. It is now in talks
to acquire the remaining 325 acres
from the Ministry of Defence to
buy an airstrip used as a parachute
training drop zone.
Ironically, the Housing Minister’s
statement referred to Weston
Otmoor as a scheme to build
between 10,000 and 15,000 homes
‘on brownfield land three miles
Figure 3: Shipton
Wootton
Woodstock
Long Hanborough
Key
A44
Bladon
Church Hanborough
Settlements
Rivers
Swinford
Bunkers
Hill
Cassington
Tackley
SHIPTON
Oxford
Airport
Begbroke
Yarton
A40
Wytham
A44
south of Bicester’. According believed it made a mockery of the
to the chairman of Oxfordshire GeoFile Series 27 term Issue 2‘sustainable’ development. The
CPRE (Campaign to Fig Protect 581_03 Rural Mac/eps/illustrator trust also 11 s/s complains that no attempt
England), the vast bulk NELSON of the THORNES PUBLISHING has been made to consult it about
site is greenfield. The Artist: airfield David is Russell Illustration the scheme.
the only brownfield area and that
makes up about 10% of the site. The In another irony, villagers at
land east of the A34 is Green Belt. Weston-on-the-Green were angry
Green Belt land makes up about a to learn that their local councillor
third of the site. He also claimed was, in fact, one of the landowners
that the so-called eco credentials involved with Parkridge. Parkridge
of the new settlement represented has an option to buy about 200 acres
a smokescreen for making housebuilding
on green fields appear section of the site.
of his farmland on the south-western
more palatable. The CPRE estimates
Weston Otmoor would lead to at Oxfordshire County Council leader
least 7,500 extra car movements a Keith Mitchell says the ecotown
day on the A34 and M40.
would affect plans to revitalise
Bicester, which could end up as
Weston Otmoor’s neglected, ageing,
‘ugly sister’, condemned to be in
the economic shadow of the ‘bright,
shiny’ newcomer. In addition, the
planned development of 4,000
homes on Oxford’s Green Belt near
Blackbird Leys would also come
under question as a result of the
planned ecotown at Weston Otmoor.
The local wildlife trust, BBOWT,
fears the scheme would result in the
loss of one of its most important
nationally designated wildlife sites,
threatening an ancient woodland
site, a nature reserve and numerous
protected and priority species. The
proposed site includes Woodsides
Meadow Nature Reserve and other
meadows owned and managed by
BBOWT. The grassland habitats
found at this site are extremely
rare, supporting important species,
including orchids, snipe and curlew.
BBOWT’s conservation officer
Thrupp
Wolvercote
Roads
Railways
Kidlington
A4260
Kirtlington
Bletchingdon
Hampton
Poyle
A34
O X F O R D
Islip
Woodeaton
Marston
A40
Shipton cement works
However, Parkridge has pledged to
revitalise the whole of Oxfordshire’s
public transport system, with offers
of massive investment that simply
cannot be ignored. Most striking
Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2009

January 2009 no.581 Ecotowns
is the developer’s offer to fund the
long awaited East–West Rail Link to
Milton Keynes, which is estimated
to cost £190m.
Labour’s Housing Minister at the
time, Caroline Flint, claimed that
a key and indeed fundamental
component of the scheme is the
delivery of the East–West Rail Link.
A new station will be built at Weston
Otmoor. Up to five trains per hour
in each direction (to Oxford in six
minutes) will be provided. A chord
line to Bicester will mean a one hour
journey time to London.
Residents would be provided with
free tram and bus services around
the town and into Oxford, with
developers also proposing a large
park-and-ride that will ‘take car traffic
away from the motorway junction and
will provide a quicker, more direct
alternative for car commuters to
Oxford’.
Shipton Quarry
Plans were also submitted to create an
ecotown in a disused quarry north of
Kidlington (Figure 3). The scheme
planned to create at least 5,000 homes
in a self-sustained community at
Shipton Quarry. It was one of only
about 30 schemes to have been
submitted to the Government.
Kilbride Properties were hopeful
of meeting conditions set out in a
Government prospectus for new
settlements required ‘to achieve
zero carbon development and more
sustainable living’.
The Shipton Quarry scheme shows
schools, shops, sports facilities,
businesses, a new rail station, a parkand-ride
site, marina and nature
reserve. Kilbride believes a scheme to
transform the former cement works
into a thriving community is in tune
with government calls for sites with
‘separate and distinct identity but
good links to surrounding towns and
cities in terms of jobs, transport and
services’.
the Oxfordshire campaign manager
for the Campaign to Protect Rural
England expressed grave concerns
about Shipton Quarry as a site.
He stated that the greatest problem
was traffic. The surrounding roads are
already clogged. Having thousands of
people travelling to and from there,
with a large park-and-ride, would
make the situation far worse. There is
no infrastructure for it.
The Cambridge Challenge
Cambridge’s hi-tech industry has
had a major economic impact for the
region and the national economy,
but it has resulted also in a shortage
of housing and soaring house prices.
The lack of housing in the area is a
major inhibitor to further economic
development, and about 50,000 new
homes are planned to be built there
by 2020.
The ‘Cambridge Challenge’ is a pilot
scheme to develop and manage new
affordable homes for three of the
major growth sites in Cambridge.
The three sites will provide a total
of 16,000 homes by 2021, of which
around 6,000 (nearly 40%) will be
affordable. One of these sites is the
new settlement of Northstowe.
Northstowe is five miles north-west
of Cambridge, on the route of the
new Cambridgeshire Guided Bus.
It has been earmarked as a new
community of 9,500 homes on the
former RAF Oakington barracks
and airfield, and is intended to be a
flagship of sustainability in the use
of renewable energy sources, the
minimisation of carbon emissions and
the implementation of environmental
best practice on waste and water
management.
Northstowe is intended to include:
• a secondary school, six primary
schools and a civic hub including
community health and cultural
facilities;
• a local business district providing
5,000 jobs;
• leisure facilities; and
• shopping facilities suitable for a
small town.
Northstowe is looking to achieve
up to 50 per cent reductions in
energy and mains water use by using
approaches such as:
• microgeneration, photovoltaic
panels;
• solar water heating (can supply up
to 50 per cent hot water); and
• design for reduced energy and
water use.
Conclusion
On paper, ecotowns look
environmentally friendly. However,
whether they are economically viable,
and therefore environmentally viable,
is a big question. The case studies
in this unit illustrate some of the
issues connected to ecotowns. The
ecotown concept reignites some of
the concerns regarding new towns
- would they work, where should
they be located, and what impacts
will they have On the one hand,
the range of technological measures
designed to minimise environmental
impact is impressive. On the other
hand, the term ‘ecotown’ may just be
a label to appease the environmentally
minded and hide the fact that these
places are too small for self-sustaining
economic growth, and will depend
on commuting to large urban areas
nearby, thus merely exacerbating
current environmental issues.
Websites
http://www.communities.gov.
uk/documents/housing/pdf/
livinggreenerfuture, for the
background on the 15 sites to have
made the short-list.
http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/
corporate/newecotownscould, for
ecotowns and climate change.
A recent report by planning
inspectors on housing numbers
in the South East expressed little
enthusiasm for thousands of homes at
Shipton Quarry, arguing that it would
exacerbate existing traffic problems.
Shipton is an interesting location. It is
a large site that would go some way to
easing the housing shortage. However,
F o c u s
Q u e s t i o n s
1. Describe the distribution of ecotowns as shown on Figure 1.
2. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of ecotowns.
3. Decide whether ecotowns are a positive policy or not, and justify your
decision.
Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2009