1:37pm Thursday 24th June 2010
By Sam McGregor
THE future of the controversial eco-development planned for Bicester was in doubt last night after the Government confirmed the scheme was under review.
An announcement is expected in the next few weeks, but P3Eco, the firm behind the 5,000-home development, says it is “business as usual” for the initial phase.
Last summer, farmland in North West Bicester was one of four sites selected by the then Labour Government to build the country’s first eco-towns.
The others were in Whitehill-Bordon, Hampshire; St Austell, Cornwall, and Rackheath, Norfolk.
In February, Cherwell District Council got a £9.6m share of £60m Government funding to kick-start the project and build more than 600 homes across the sites to the toughest eco-standard.
But in light of the UK’s massive budget deficit, the scheme is now under review.
If the scheme is scrapped, the Government confirmed that the Bicester site would no longer be designated as an eco-town and would not attract any cash from the Government.
Both Cherwell District Council and developer P3Eco say they have had no indication from the Government over the future of the project, and at the moment it is unclear how this could affect development at the site.
This latest move has been welcomed by local councillors and campaigners who were opposed to the scheme.
District and county councillor Catherine Fulljames, said: “I would be delighted if this was scrapped.
“It has given a lot of people in my division a lot of unhappiness.”
County councillor Charles Shouler said: “The housing targets no longer exist, so why does Bicester need 5,000 houses, plus what’s already approved – which is more than 2,000.”
Tony Ives, of action group Bicester and Villages Against Sham Eco-town, said: “I’m not surprised. Every Government department has got to cut costs by 25 per cent.
“But I don’t want the eco-town to be cancelled because of the current economic climate, I want it to be dropped because it’s the wrong scheme in the wrong place.”
But Ian Inshaw, of P3Eco, the consortium set up to fund and facilitate the Bicester eco-settlement, said the Government cash already received would enable the 200-home exemplar to be built.
He said: “The fact is that the Government has given the first tranche of funding – £9.6m – and the second was expected to be less than the first.
“But the first tranche allows us to go ahead.
“Certainly the exemplar project is up and running and we will be submitting a detailed planning application in the autumn.
“We have been given no other indication by any of the agencies we have been in contact with.”
A spokesman for the DLGC said: “Eco-towns are being reviewed.
“It is fair to say the Government is looking at all projects, as obviously we are in difficult financial times.”
The spokesman added: “There’s nothing stopping a developer building a low-carbon or zero-carbon community. But to be an eco-town it does have to be part of the eco-programme and that depends on the future of that programme.”
Michael Gibbard, Cherwell’s executive member for planning and housing, said: “We have already received most of the funding we expected from Government and have almost £10m in our bank.
“We still expect a second, much smaller award of between £2m and £4m and await confirmation of this. But our commitment to Eco-Bicester is not in any way dependent on it.”
l When Government announced the UK’s four eco-town sites, with it came a promise of £60m to go towards the infrastructure to get the development up and running.
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