Eco-town will affect jobs

The millions of pounds needed to create employment in the proposed environmentally-friendly settlement on the former airfield would directly compete with hopes of regenerating Bognor, the special select committee members said.

The prospects of Bognor being able to attract sufficient investment to overcome this effect were small in the absence of major new road schemes.

The damning assessment of the eco-town's effect was one of six reasons for the recommendation decided by the Arun District Council committee at its meeting on Tuesday to oppose the scheme and urge the government not to take it any further.

The decision will be reported to a meeting of all Arun councillors on June 30. Their verdict will be given to the government just before its deadline for public comments about the eco-town plans.

The outcome of the committee's deliberations followed six intensive days of hearings into the eco-town idea.

This would see 5,000 homes, many of them affordable, built on a mixed brownfield and greenfield site along with employment opportunities, a new secondary school, schools and health facilities.

The aim of the new town would be to create a carbon-neutral community within which walking and cycling will be encouraged.

A new Ford railway station and bus services will add to the environmental credentials.

Two proposals for the Ford scheme have been accepted by the government's housing minister Caroline Flint on her 15-strong shortlist of possible eco-towns. The final ten are likely to be chosen in October. Some will be expected to be completed by 2016 and all by 2020.

But the eight members of the select committee had a range of six concerns about the plans.

As well as the jobs impact, they were:

n The lack of an A27 Arundel bypass would see a major development cause significant congestion on local roads;

n The need for evaluate alternative solutions to the district's housing problems to see if the eco-town was the best;

n Proposals to generate energy from waste were unacceptable because they depended on waste being brought into the eco-town;

n The damaging impact an eco-town would have on its surrounding area; and

n The lack of talks with the likes of rail authorities, bus operators and the education authority undermined the credibility of the proposals.

Committee member Cllr Dr James Walsh said the absence of an Arundel bypass had destroyed the eco-town plans.

"The government is positively discouraging promoters of eco-towns from signing up to new road developments because they are incompatible to the principles of eco-towns," he said.

The other major blow to the schemes' credibility in his opinion was the sheer volume of waste needed to create a worthwhile amount of energy.

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