Six of the Best 84

Quaequam Blog! wakes up and points out the ridiculous position Labour has got itself into on public services: "Labour pledged at the last election to halve the deficit within four years; the coalition plan to half the deficit within three years. Labour planned a 70:30 cuts:tax rises package and conspicuously didn’t rule out raising VAT; the Coalition plan a 77:23 cut:tax rises package which includes raising VAT. While the Coalition’s cuts are undeniable steeper than what Labour intended, Labour has made it clear that they oppose number of cuts to non-frontline services that the Coalition is introducing – specifically by scrapping the National Identity Register, ContactPoint and prison places. These ringfenced spending plans would have to be paid for out of increased cuts to frontline services."

A scandal here in Wales: Peter Black reports on the interim chief executive of S4C's apparently inaccurate claim to have been the editor of Panorama. Still, the channel does have a very good animated show featuring elephants speaking Welsh. I think it could catch on more widely.

Caron's Musings reminds us about the Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year Awards.

An interesting new campaigning technique has emerged. Writing on Lib Dem Voice, Sara Bedford reveals that Nick Norman has won a seat on Seaford Town Council while on honeymoon.

Kevin Feltham writes about the campaign that resisted the Co-op's plans to build an "eco-town" in the Leicestershire countryside near Stoughton.

Alexei Sayle tells us: "There will be a big extract from my memoir in the Sunday Times Magazine this Sunday the 22nd. Apart from extracts from the book there are also family photos of me as a child which even I find perplexing as to how that sweet looking infant grew up into me."

Pennbury "eco town" plans abandoned

The Leicester Mercury reports:

Leicestershire's proposed eco-town has been rejected, the Government announced today.

Pennbury, a 15,000-home development for land between Oadby, Great Glen and Stoughton, failed to make the shortlist of preferred sites for the flagship homes developments.

More significantly, the site at Stoughton is not mentioned in the "second wave" of developments that need more work before the government considers them again.

They'll be dancing in the lanes of High Leicestershire tonight. I made my own opposition to the plans for a new town at Stoughton clear in an article for Comment is Free a year ago.

Vince Cable and Chris Huhne in Market Harborough

It's been a big day for Market Harborough Liberal Democrats.

During the day we had a visit from Vince Cable, who addressed a local business forum and visited the site of the proposed Pennbury eco-town as part of our campaign against its construction.

Then, because Vince had to return to London to take part in Question Time, Chris Huhne came to speak at our annual dinner at the Angel Hotel, Market Harborough. I was busy at work during the day but did attend the dinner.

All this and Bill Newton Dunn too.

Leicestershire County Council to oppose Pennbury eco-town

The cabinet of the Conservative-run Leicestershire County Council has voted to object to plans for a 15,000-home eco-town at Pennbury - or Stoughton as we call it round here.

The BBC reports:

After the meeting, Leicestershire County Council's deputy leader Nick Rushton, said: "We are objecting to Pennbury because it is in the wrong location, we don't have all the key facts and we have major concerns about the impact on transport, regeneration and the economy."

Bill Newton Dunn opposes Pennbury eco-town

According to the Market Harborough Liberal Democrats website (and I should know because I posted the story there last night) Bill Newton Dunn MEP has come out against the proposed Pennbury eco-town:

"Only a few weeks ago, during a visit to Market Harborough, I placed on record my deep concerns regarding the proposed eco-town. The suggested site is inappropriate and its impact concerning, and the potential legacy for future generations is negative."

He is to write to Margaret Beckett, the housing minister, asking her to remove Pennbury from the shortlist of proposed eco-towns.

New report casts doubt on viability of Pennbury eco-town

I have written about the proposed Pennbury eco-town in Leicestershire from time to time. You will find them labelled "Stoughton" here as that is how the area is known to those of us who live here.

Yesterday's Sunday Telegraph reported that:

a leading consultancy on urban design and planning has damned the Pennbury scheme, submitted by the Co-operative supermarket and property group, as economically "unsustainable", "ambiguous" and "fundamentally weak".

The Halcrow Group, which was commissioned by four local authorities covering Leicester and the surrounding towns and villages to assess the Co-op's plans, said the new town was likely to produce fewer jobs than envisaged, would suffer from poor transport links and would be out of keeping in what is currently a rural setting.

The report also found:

• The Co-op had produced no convincing evidence to support the assumption that 60 per cent of residents would be able to work in the town.
• The planned location has poor transport links, making it unattractive for potential employers and businesses.
• It is unclear from population projections whether there is in fact a need for so many new homes in the area.
• There has been no survey of local environmental features such as ecology, landscape and cultural heritage.

Waxing lyrical about south-east Leicestershire

© Copyright Mat Fascione

A review of the food at The Bakers Arms, Thorpe Langton, in Metro begins:

Last month, one of the broadsheet newspapers ran an article about the controversial proposals for eco-town Pennbury. It waxed lyrical about the south-east Leicestershire countryside being on a par with the finest scenery in Dorset or Devon. And on a summer's evening drive out to The Bakers Arms in Thorpe Langton, it's easy to see why.

This is the kind of lush, gently rolling countryside that flies the flag for sentimental patriotism. It summons to mind a Vaughan Williams soundtrack, a game of cricket on the village green and a pint of foaming ale.

Actually it was just on the Guardian website, but it is nice to know someone reads my stuff.

Government "eco-towns" programme in crisis

From the Public Servant Today site:

The government’s eco-towns plans continue to be blighted by set-backs and protests, according to some reports.

Not only is the promised shortlist of towns now going to be released in 2009 rather than this October – because ministers say they need more time to look at revised applications – but it may be much shorter than originally planned, for a variety of reasons.

The list began with 16 towns but is now said to be down to 10 and could reduce further still. The plans could also be affected by an unexpectedly high level of hostility to the plans from the public and the possibility of legal challenges following accusations that eco-towns bypass traditional planning procedures.

For arguments against development of the Pennbury site in Leicestershire, see my recent article for Comment is Free.

No to the Pennbury eco-town

I have an article on Comment is Free this morning under the title Let's hear it for Leicestershire:

it is hard to believe the Pennbury site in Leicestershire would have got anywhere near Caroline Flint's eco-towns shortlist if it were in the south east.

And:

In his Midland England – which is to those fighting Midlandsism what The Woman's Room was to early feminists – WG Hoskins described eastern Leicestershire as "a landscape of sharp hills, woodland, stone-built villages and many fine churches".

Let's hope that landscape remains intact and that more people are able to overcome their prejudices and enjoy it.

Bad news for Stoughton

From this evening's Leicester Mercury:

A controversial plan to build an eco-town on the outskirts of Leicester has been shortlisted by the Government.

Villagers protesting against the scheme say they will fight on to ensure the project, which will see up to 15,000 new homes being built between Stoughton and Great Glen, will not go ahead.

The announcement of 15 preferred towns from a list of 57 was made this morning. Housing minister Caroline Flint would only say which schemes had been chosen, not why they had been chosen.

The area's MP Edward Garnier said: 'She came across as a minister who has no idea about the local conditions. It is an idiotic decision.'

I have had a bad feeling about Stoughton ever since it was announced that the site was being considered. The pally relations between the Co-operative Wholesale Society and the Labour Party and the ignorance of London-based officials and politicians about the beauty of the eastern side of Leicestershire have made me fear the worse.

But the campaign against development at Stoughton goes on. See the CASCET (Campaign Against the Stoughton Co-op Eco Town) website.

Later. Emma Lee has a good posting on this too.

More on the Stoughton "eco town"

Two months ago I wrote about Co-operative Wholesale Society's plans to develop the Stoughton Estate here in Leicestershire as an "eco town".

Now Unmitigated England writes:

The idea pretends to cash-in on the environmental bandwagon, claiming the desire to build 'green' houses on already richly-green pastureland. We all know that this is a lie, greed dressed-up in eco clothes.

and also has two beautiful photographs of the area.

House Points: The Leicestershire eco town

My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News.

Eco incongruity

In Midland England W. G. Hoskins described eastern Leicestershire as “a landscape of sharp hills, woodland, stone-built villages and many fine churches”. The Stoughton Estate is good example of this. Defra’s website says it provides ideal walks and suggests you enjoy the pasture beside the River Sence.

Stoughton has been owned by the Co-operative Wholesale Society since 1919. It had a dairy herd until the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 and now grows wheat, oil seed rape and spring beans. It is also home to the Co-op’s ‘From Farm to Fork’ project, which gives primary school children a better understanding of where their food comes from. Since September 2005 over 3,000 have visited Stoughton under the scheme.

But there may not be many more. For Stoughton is one of 57 places around the country being investigated as possible sites for the government’s shiny new ‘eco towns’. Late on Tuesday night Edward Garnier, the Tory MP for Harborough (and my own constituency member), secured a short debate on Stoughton and eco towns in general.

He explained that Harborough district is already due to take 7,000 new dwellings, yet the Co-op’s proposal is to build a settlement twice the size of Market Harborough, its largest town. (Incidentally, the Market Harborough has great potential as a unit of measurement. “That new estate is a quarter of a Market Harborough”, people could say. Or: “It’s a great city – at least ten Market Harboroughs.”)

And, said Garnier, the plans have never been debated in Parliament or by Leicestershire county council, Harborough district council, Leicester city council, Oadby and Wigston borough council, the East Midlands regional assembly or the East Midlands Development Agency.

In the past, when the Co-op tried to develop Stoughton as a “new town”, the plans were thrown out. But no one is sure of the extent to which the prefix “eco” will get you around current planning law. At the end of Garnier’s debate we were little wiser. The minister responding to the debate was Ian Wright, the urchin who won the Hartlepool by-election for Labour a few years ago. Just as he got into his stride, the Deputy Speaker called time.

So enjoy Stoughton’s landscape while you can.