MP welcomes recommendation to scrap eco-town proposal

Simon Crump
Cotswold Journal

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown spoke after independent planning inspectors, who conducted an in-depth examination of the proposal , published the Examination in Public of the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy which concluded the eco-town would be unsustainable.

The government will make the final decision, as to whether the plan should be scrapped, after evaluating the report.

Mr Clifton-Brown said the report’s findings would make a decision to pursue the scheme “extraordinarily perverse”.

Development companies, St Modwen and The Bird Group, propose building the eco-town that would be called Middle Quinton.

Since it was first published last year, the plan has met with massive opposition from nearby residents who fear extra traffic generated by the eco-town would make their lives a misery.

Mr Clifton-Brown said the report vindicates everything he and fellow MPs, John Maples and Peter Luff, have said about the proposal since the government produced it.

He said: “As a chartered surveyor, I was mindful of the fact that this development was unsustainable and would have led to more – not less – car usage.

“This would have been totally contradictory to the government’s raison d'être in the first place.

“Eco-towns do have their place but it is on the edge of large conurbations.

“The Long Marston eco-town is the wrong proposal in the wrong place.”

The developers’ spokesman said: “As far as we’re concerned, the decision now rests with the Department for Communities and Local Government as to whether the development is included in the next wave of shortlisted eco-town sites.”