Report meeting Council date 19th June 2008 agenda item number REPORT OF THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL Consultation Paper on “Eco-towns: Living a greener future”, April 2008 Purpose of the Report 1. To seek Council’s response to “Eco-towns: Living a greener future – a consultation paper”, to be sent to the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG). Introduction and Background 2. The Government has recently produced a consultation on a shortlist of potential Eco-towns, together with the process by which it will be decided whether they are appropriate proposals. 3. The Government intention is for Eco-towns to offer the opportunity to achieve high standards of sustainable living while also maximising the potential for affordable housing. 4. The Government has announced 15 proposals to go through to the next stage of assessment to become eco-towns. The Government indicates that they are designed to meet three pressing challenges – the housing shortage and affordability, climate change and sustainable living. 5. The aim is for up to 10 new settlements to be built, with construction underway by 2010. This consultation seeks views on the key criteria that eco-towns will have to meet in the more detailed assessments that the 15 proposals will face. This will be followed by a new Planning Policy Statement on Eco-Towns in the Autumn. 6. Rushclffe Borough has been identified as an area for an, as yet unspecified, potential location for an Eco-town. One proposal put forward by private landowners at Kingston–on-Soar has been rejected, but uniquely, the Government wishes to investigate further the possibility of an Eco-town in the Borough. Another proposal on the northern boundary of the County, at Rossington, three miles south of Doncaster, is also in the shortlist. Page 1 of 14 C:\Program Files (x86)\neevia.com\docConverterPro\temp\NVDC\82E5F6A6-130A-421A-8253-49D53A4BB201\1c958a85- 34ca-49eb-b058-ba2e22ee2f9e.doc 1 30 09 21 7. The current consultation document seeks the public's views on the vision for eco-towns and the shortlisted proposed locations. The consultation closes on 30 June. The Eco-town consultation paper 8. The government issued an Eco-towns Prospectus in July 2007 which invited proposals for new small towns. These would become exemplars of sustainable development and living. Thus an Eco-town would: − be separate and distinct from existing towns with a minimum of 5,000 homes − meet zero carbon standards and set standards for environmental sustainability − provide the range of local facilities needed in a small town − be co-ordinated and developed by a management body. 9. Fifty seven sites were submitted as a result of the prospectus, of which 15 locations from those submitted have been shortlisted. 10. The Government consider that the opportunity to design settlements as a whole should allow new ideas to be tested, with standards of design that recognise and reduce the impact of developments on the environment. There is particular emphasis on the techniques and technologies that could be piloted at a whole-town scale. There will need to be different approaches to meet the local circumstance of each eco- town location. However there are some key features, summarised here, that will be expected in all of them. 11. The development as a whole should be zero carbon, which means over a year the net carbon emissions from all the buildings energy use are zero. 12. Water management will be important in terms of both water stressed and flood risk areas. Water efficiency and conservation should be considered. 13. Eco-towns should be exemplars for waste management, through minimising, recycling and extracting value from waste. This includes the construction stage. 14. Green infrastructure should be integral to the new development; it should be interconnected and include native habitats and a range of green spaces, in particular allotments. 15. The development should reduce reliance on the car using sustainable travel, the co-location of services within 10 minutes walk of homes, priority for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport and facilities for home working. Public transport needs to be well-connected (in and out of the eco-town). Page 2 of 14 C:\Program Files (x86)\neevia.com\docConverterPro\temp\NVDC\82E5F6A6-130A-421A-8253-49D53A4BB201\1c958a85- 34ca-49eb-b058-ba2e22ee2f9e.doc 2 30 09 21 16. An employment strategy would introduce high quality business space, the potential of green technology, and linkage to employment opportunities, training and skills development. 17. Other characteristics are: • making good use of brownfield and surplus public sector land; • effectively addressing flood risks, air quality, water efficiency, and waste issues; • low and zero carbon energy sources nearby; • between 30% and 50 % affordable housing, focusing on family homes; • a management body to co-ordinate town and community development; • community building and empowerment to create a ‘vibrant and sustainable community’; • innovative education, health and other services that are shaped to the communities needs; • construction to Code for Sustainable Homes standards; • resilient to future climate change effects in the area; • master-planning and high design standards; • promoting healthier lifestyles through “Active Design” principles. 18. Any eco-town proposal will still require a planning application to the local planning authority to gain final approval. However, in some cases the development will not fit within the current regional and local planning policy framework. 19. The Government wants to develop a planning policy framework for eco- towns and to indicate those locations that have the potential to be an eco-town; it intends to consult on a new Planning Policy Statement for the consideration of eco-towns in the Autumn. This will be a material consideration when dealing with eco-town planning applications. There will need to be a full sustainability appraisal for each of the eco-town schemes. The Secretary of State will still have the power to “call in” a planning decision. 20. The consultation also indicates that housing provision within eco-towns will need to be additional to existing plans, but may help to meet future revised targets within host districts. These revised targets may be those introduced at the next stage (proposed changes) of the current East Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) expected now in June, or await the review of the RSS that the Regional Assembly intends to commence later this year, for completion in 2010. 21. The Consultation Paper gives a range of examples and ideas of the components of sustainable master-planning and building design that eco-towns are expected to include. It also contains advice on the role of an Eco-towns Challenge Panel who will input into the design at the selected locations. Page 3 of 14 C:\Program Files (x86)\neevia.com\docConverterPro\temp\NVDC\82E5F6A6-130A-421A-8253-49D53A4BB201\1c958a85- 34ca-49eb-b058-ba2e22ee2f9e.doc 3 30 09 21 22. Of the 15 potential sites, one is within Nottinghamshire and one close to its northern boundary. The submitted site in Rushcliffe has been rejected, but the Government is proposing to carry out a further review in partnership with Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) to consider whether there is a suitable alternative location with the potential to be viable within the Rushcliffe local authority area (See Appendix B). A site has been shortlisted for a 15,000 home eco-town on a former mine at Rossington, south of Doncaster, about 6km from the County boundary. Summary of County Council comments 23. The County Council’s comments (see Appendix A) fall into four broad areas: the sustainability principles behind Eco-towns, the processes the Government is introducing, the principle of locating Eco-towns and the shortlisted locations. Design principles of Eco-towns 24. The County Council can give its support to the wide range of development criteria, sustainable design principles, innovative technologies, and best practice examples that eco-towns should incorporate. Indeed, the County Council is at the forefront of implementing many innovative initiatives, such as locally sourced wood- fuel for schools and public transport accessibility development. 25. However, the principles themselves do not require free standing settlements to demonstrate, or deliver excellent sustainable outcomes. Furthermore, Eco-towns, separate from existing towns and cities may compromise some current good practice and planning. It would be better to identify locations in the existing Three Cities Growth Point for the development of Eco-town principles. Process for establishing eco-towns 26. The Government’s process for establishing eco-towns has avoided the regional and local dimensions of spatial planning strategy and policy development. There is no regard for the present RSS process, and the process potentially imposes large scale new development on localities with little regard to evidence, the existing spatial vision and policy, need for additional housing, and the concerns of stakeholders and communities. In addition, there are real concerns that the process by- passes local decision-making and views. Eco-towns in principle – location and strategy 27. There is currently no robust evidence that eco-towns are required to meet growth targets in the East Midlands. The required growth can be accommodated within the regional strategy of urban concentration. Development in unsustainable locations, however well designed, of the scale of many of the proposed Eco towns means that the ability of those Page 4 of 14 C:\Program Files (x86)\neevia.com\docConverterPro\temp\NVDC\82E5F6A6-130A-421A-8253-49D53A4BB201\1c958a85- 34ca-49eb-b058-ba2e22ee2f9e.doc 4 30 09 21 towns to be self-sufficient enough to become carbon-neutral must be questionable. 28. The review of the Regional Spatial Strategy is the right place to determine the need for and location of freestanding new settlements in Nottinghamshire, and, therefore, the East Midlands. This will account for the wider spatial implications, using sound planning processes and considering spatial development options.