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!
Currently, CAFE is responding to the published developers' plan and it is noteworthy that it still fails on several counts:
failure to enable transport, with no bypass, no spine road, no Ford Lane improvements;
no affordable homes, but "high-rises" to be built;
no viable employment opportunities, "science park" not workable;
no viable waste-to-energy, unless importing waste, using countless HGVs;
no boundary definition, or extra open space; flood plain risks;
no "future-proofing", or allowance for climate change;
no evidence of planned building phases;
charging residents to live there;
destruction of green "carbon-reducing" fields;
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,
YaptonNOTE: All letters must include a name and address which can be withheld by request.
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