Waiting for ruling on time-wasting Eco-Town proposal

YOUR readers may have noticed a carefully scripted "leak" in the national Observer paper which indicated the possibility that the government will drop its main proposal for Eco-Towns across the country.

Ford must be a candidate to be taken off the list, given strong local opposition.

It has always been CAFE's position that a proposal as ground-breaking as this should be piloted somewhere first and preferably a sound candidate site chosen '“ which Ford is definitely not!

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Currently, CAFE is responding to the published developers' plan and it is noteworthy that it still fails on several counts:

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failure to enable transport, with no bypass, no spine road, no Ford Lane improvements;

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no affordable homes, but "high-rises" to be built;

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no viable employment opportunities, "science park" not workable;

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no viable waste-to-energy, unless importing waste, using countless HGVs;

l

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no boundary definition, or extra open space; flood plain risks;

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no "future-proofing", or allowance for climate change;

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no evidence of planned building phases;

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charging residents to live there;

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destruction of green "carbon-reducing" fields;

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failure to prove that houses are actually needed, or viable, at Ford.

We eagerly await a ruling from the new housing minister, Margaret Beckett, to avoid any more time-wasting on this contentious and very unpopular issue.

Terry Knott,

Chairman, Communities Against Ford Eco-Town (CAFE),

Church Lane,

Yapton

NOTE: All letters must include a name and address which can be withheld by request.

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