High Court challenge to eco-town plans (From The Argus)
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High Court challenge to eco-town plans
10:30am Sunday 12th July 2009 in
The controversial bid to build a 5,000-home eco-town on a former airfield is to be challenged in court.
Arun District Council is concerned about the Government’s plans for the Ford Airfield site near Arundel.
Chief executive Ian Sumnall has lodged a legal challenge against the plans in the High Court.
Arun has already earmarked £20,000 to pay for the legal fees.
The challenge centres around a single word change to the South East Plan where the word “test”
was substituted for the word “facilitate” – changing the meaning of the document.
The council is worried that the change, which it says was made without “consultation, explanation or justification”, could mean that eco-towns could be forced on to local authorities without previous testing that has taken place through the council’s own planning document, the Local Development Framework.
The Government’s proposed ecotown scheme would see ten of the new communities built before 2020.
The aim is to champion environmentally-friendly lifestyles, carbon-neutrality and energy efficiency.
But the councils in each area where the towns have been proposed have objected to the plans.
Comments(4)
Lil
says...
12:56pm Sun 12 Jul 09
jaygee wrote:The problem is as usual there are NO planned infrastructure improvements substantial enough to deal with extra population along what is the second most densely populated area of the UK.
how come nick herbert didnt give a quote on this article,was he too busy on a trip to brazil to see FRIENDS.obviously local councils will be against these schemes as they all want to be stuck in some sort of weird time warp of not in my back yard,strange.by the way nick has the new ford number one invited you in for tea and crumpets yet.whoops should have said fairy cakes,SORRY
Eco-town or not, the A27 is a load of crap, the rail services could be better improved, hospitals have been threatened with closure and school places are heavily contested.
What we need to do is a bit of planning, not some long 100 page document on blather but a simple step by step improvement plan that is executed one step at a time. We can't pile more houses into the area and expect the bullsh!t infrastructure put up with it.
Build a proper A27 (tunnels, not Twyford Vandalised Down cuttings), proper shuttle rail services, improve hospitals, get shot of level crossings, and build new decent schools and only then will the area be able to realistically cater for more people.
As for the gay jibes, learn to reason on merit and substance rather than playground tittle tattle.
jaygee
says...
1:52pm Sun 12 Jul 09
salty_pete
says...
8:37am Mon 13 Jul 09
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jaygee says...
11:06am Sun 12 Jul 09