Would you like a house in a Eco-town?

[Sysman]

The proposed site for the Bicester one was next to the A34 and M40, and with no decent rail links. So clearly the real intention was "London car commuter town" rather than anything ECOist.

I was wondering about the China Clay Community in Cornwall...

Housing for the locals to free up more holiday homes?

[EternalOptimist]

I wonder if the tescos in the eco town will have shelves and shelves of organic stuff, with a little non-organic top shelf

[EternalOptimist]

everything will be so expensive, they will have to drive to the next town to buy cheap chickens, thereby making it a non-eco town

[Menelaus]

Given that Bordon (named Bordon because "sh!t" was already taken) is an absolute sh!t hole that should've been nuked from orbit years ago...no thanks.

[Zippy]

I've got long hair, don't have a proper job and I recycle jokes. Sounds perfect!

[Not So Wise]

"But the zero-carbon developments - some earmarked on open countryside "
"some sites were picked where conventional developments had failed to get off the ground."

Basically whole thing sounds like it is an attempt to make failed housing estates sound nicer and to build a few more in the cheap land in the middle of nowhere (greenbelt)

[shaunbhoy]

Can't see the carrot-crunching pasty-munchers buying into the idea at St Austell. They set up roadblocks when the Eden Project wanted to install a single wind turbine!!!

[landl]

And for the ultimate irony...

...the building regulations imposed on homes in these "eco" towns will mean that they are actually less eco friendly than "ordinary" homes being built elsewhere at the same time (and that's before considering the lack of public transport and travel to work distances)!

Heard this on Radio 4, I think PM, so must be true...

[Menelaus]

I've got long hair, don't have a proper job and I recycle jokes. Sounds perfect!

Yes, but your long-hair is utterly forgiveable.

[Halo Jones]

The problem with labels such as “Eco Homes” is that it is too ambiguous. There are many ways of making a home Eco in the sense of energy efficiency and recycled materials in construction.

But the Eco town is a totally different matter – then you are looking at service locations, transport links, employment opportunities and the such.

“some sites were picked where conventional developments had failed to get off the ground." Would have been nice to know why they failed, was it finance, planning or plain muppetry?

As for green belt: realistically its going to start being used soon, the majority of the brown field sites have gone & there is still need for development, unless we start converting all the empty offices into homes then bye bye green bits.