Greenvoice

Why should you join?

Weston Front, the campaign group fighting against the proposal to build the Weston-Otmoor eco-town is run by Anthony Henman, Norman Machin and Bob Hessian - all three are local residents of Weston on the Green and have been for over 35 years. They are supported by the people of Weston on the Green, local villages, Bicester and Kidlington.

IMPACT OF PROPOSED WESTON-OTMOOR "ECO-TOWN"

Impact on existing market towns

The proposals would severely impact upon the market town of Bicester and also nearby Kidlington. These centres need infrastructure and investment not competition on their doorstep. The Bicester and District Chamber of Commerce rightly notes that Bicester "suffers from a lack of infrastructure, limited social and community facilities, a town centre that is in dire need of development and workforce of which 70% commutes out of Bicester". The Parkridge proposals will exacerbate these issues. Leader of the County Council, Keith Mitchell, has commented that "road infrastructure, A34 and M40, are already significantly overloaded and the proposed "eco-town" will seriously degrade Bicester". Investment should be focussed where there is need, around what we already have, not on Greenfield sites.

County Council policy is also to concentrate development around the county towns. There is a spatial structure within the county of villages, market towns and a county town which this proposal totally ignores. Weston Otmoor would be an isolated ghetto which neither contributes nor relates to the form of any existing settlement. Cherwell has already planned for 12,000 new houses over the next two decades and these are to be sited to develop and support existing towns. As Council leader Barry Woods has said, "reliance on free-standing new settlements is not an appropriate solution for Cherwell". Bicester Town Council"s statement notes that Cherwell"s Local Development Framework is the locally agreed framework for how the area will be developed and sustained for generations to come. Our local MP, Tony Baldry, has rightly pointed out that we have a "plan led development system, ministers proposals for eco-towns go completely against the grain of those long established principles, eco-towns are not going to be considered in the context of regional spatial strategies".`

Ecological, landscape and greenbelt impacts
The Parkridge proposals assert that a detailed assessment has revealed the area to be "ecologically mundane" - an astonishing statement given that the proposed new town and its infrastructure will be partly in the Greenbelt, occupy a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and would mostly occupy productive farmland with an extensive network of woodland, hedgerow and natural wetland habitat sites. Minister Caroline Flint has stated that "Greenbelts will not be compromised". The site has been presented, incorrectly, as "brownfield". It is not. A small part is on a grassland airfield with no hard runways.

"Motown"

An "eco-town" on a motorway junction is a stunningly inappropriate location. It will attract commuters who use M40 or A34 corridor. Parkridge"s own promotional brochure states that "families will be moving to the new settlement "from different areas of the country". How does this address local needs?

The impact on surrounding rural roads would be intolerable. 15,000 dwellings would normally be expected to generate 10,000 car journeys at peak hours. It is quite unrealistic to expect a 100% modal shift onto rail. Many people will simply not want to travel along the Oxford to Milton Keynes "arc". There would in addition be thousands of car trips to the proposed 12,000 job business park. It is naive to believe that the work-force would all live in the adjacent worker-housing. The villages of Wendlebury, Little Chesterton, Bletchingdon, Middleton Stoney, Islip, Kirtlington, The Hamptons, Stanton St John and Weston on the Green would be subject to appalling rat-running.

Planning process and consultation

These proposals have been concocted in complete secrecy without the involvement of the local planning authorities or local communities. The Department of Communities and Local Government compares the "eco-town" initiative with the first generation of English new towns. Those towns were carefully sited following agreed planning principles. Neither "Community" nor "Local Government" has been consulted on the most appropriate locations before these proposals have been drawn up which are based on nothing more than opportunistic land assembly.

The chief sales pitch in Parkridge"s brochure is that the proposed town would fund the Oxford to Milton Keynes section of the East-West Rail Link. Setting aside the fact that the Bicester to Oxford section is already operational and used by local people, the attraction to central government is clearly the offer of a contribution towards the estimated £200m cost. To achieve this through a proposed £5 billion development at Weston Otmoor would be the tail wagging the dog.

The continental examples offered by the government are all brownfield sites within or adjacent to large metropolitan areas. Weston Otmoor would be an ugly intrusion on a special landscape, would undermine nearby market towns and devastate nearby villages.

Consultation by the government, ends June 30th

The consultation on the proposal for Weston Otmoor and on the idea of eco-towns generally ends on June 30th. What people say in the consultation will directly affect which 10 of the 15 towns already shortlisted will be chosen in the autumn. The more people that object, the more likely we are to save Weston from going on to the next step which is the planning process.

What you should do

send your ideas and objections to the Weston Front so that we can include them in the campaign reply to the consultation by filling out the form here:
http://www.westonfront.com/help.html

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