Eco Towns

Many people see the proposed eco-towns as an extension of the garden city movement into the twenty-first century. The context has changed along with the challenges so these new towns would set out to address the concerns of today and those expected in the future.

One of the most important, but not the only, issue is that of climate change. Therefore to be an exemplary demonstration town of excellence the carbon footprint should be no more than two tons of CO2 per person per year – the average maximum level for sustainable living on Earth. Given that this annual figure of two tons would be used just for the consumables (food, clothing, furniture and equipment) the town itself will have to be carbon zero. This will include transport.

Therefore it would be axiomatic that no resident could own a vehicle that runs on petrol. Even petrol hybrids would not count. For the moment only vehicles that run electric motors would be permissible. There is an argument for residents not to have cars at all but to have access to car clubs.

The government proposals require that much of the town should be “green” undeveloped parkland. I think this is wrong headed. This could make the settlement very low density. Better to have a small, denser town surrounded by protected open space. Looking at pre-industrial settlements I’d say a town of not more than 800m from centre to edge would be the most desirable.

I’d mark the centre as a defined point and mark the edge too. People living on the edge would know that their views would not be impaired by further development.

With the opportunity of a foot-loose location I would build the town with a railway station at the centre – not near the centre but at the centre. I would cover the line to avoid the railway bifurcating the town. I would use a current rail line and avoid the use of a branch line.

I would impose a planning guidance that essentially said that the more people that visit a site the closer it would have to be to the centre. One cannot be absolute, but as a general indicator such a rule is very useful. It would mean that libraries and shops would be in the town centre and not at the edge. Similarly workplaces would be closer to the centre too.

I was lucky, I was raised in the world’s first garden suburb, Bedford Park (pictured right) – the railway station was in the centre, along with the shops, the church, the college, the theatre and the park. When it was built there weren’t any cars – that genie is now out of the bottle. The main mistake they made was not to protect the surrounding countryside by giving it to the National Trust. So now the suburb simply merges into the seething mass of the great Wen.