EURO-MP HITS OUT AT ECO-TOWN PLANS (Liz Lynne)

EURO-MP HITS OUT AT ECO-TOWN PLANS

May 21, 2008 9:57 AM

Local Euro-MP Liz Lynne has criticised the 'eco-town' plans for Middle Quinton, saying they are yet more evidence that the Labour government at Westminster is out of touch.

Commenting today, Liz Lynne MEP, who is Vice President of the European Parliament's Employment and Social affairs Committee, said:

"Nationally, no-one is denying that more houses will be necessary over the coming years and a significant proportion of these should be affordable, either to rent, buy or part-buy. And all new housing should be sustainable. But the eco-town proposals here and across the country are rather obviously old mega developments rightly rejected in previous years and just crudely tarted up with a green coat of paint."

The Stratford-based LibDem MEP said the plan for Middle Quinton was a case in point as she believed the local infrastructure could not cope without wholesale reconstruction.

She added: "The plan is also unsustainable as without sufficient jobs on site it would just become a dormitory town for commuters, generating new and unnecessary journeys with a negative carbon footprint.

"The Labour government's decision to allocate precisely where thousands of new homes should be built without allowing local residents or local councils any real consultation or input is madness. But I also totally reject the Conservative policy of scrapping the Regional Spatial Strategy - in the absence of a framework which involves local councils and communities, and a lack of obvious volunteers for significant housing units, we will end up a few years down the line with another government imposed central diktat.

"Local communities need to decide where local people, present and future, should live. Both the Labour government and Conservative spokesmen are denying this simple truth.

"I am all for sustainable housing in the real sense of the word. I recently visited a small development at Lighthorne Heath which fits the description much better.

"The plan as it stands for Middle Quinton will not be sustainable and would be a disaster for the local area."

ENDS

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