Weston Otmoor

Weston Otmoor is a proposed eco-town in Oxfordshire, planned for a site 7 miles north of Oxford near the village of Weston-on-the-Green, next to Junction 9 of the M40 motorway.

The eco-town concept and individual proposals are subject to a consultation by the Department of Communities and Local Government ending 30 June 2008. [ [http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/ecotownsgreenerfuture Eco-towns: Living a greener future - consultation paper - Housing - Communities and Local Government ] ]

Weston Otmoor is one of 15 bids shortlisted by the Department of Communities and Local Government on 3 April 2008.

Principal features

[ [http://www.parkridge.co.uk/category.php?category=6&menuitem=5167 Initial Proposals for Weston Otmoor eco-town by Parkridge Holdings] ]

Located 7 miles north of Oxford next to Junction 9 of the M40 motorway.
The site covers 828 hectares, 2,046 acres. 84% of this is working farmland. The other 16% is an entirely grass airfield. 250ha is within the Oxford greenbelt.
Greenbelt land will be lost as a result of this development
Greenfield land has been reclassified as brownfield as a convience in the case of the grass airfield. The true cost in lost greenfield is around 98% (the remaining 2% being farm dwellings and small airfield buildings)
15,000 dwellings (10,000 initially)
35,000 people
12,000 jobs. Few details about the new jobs have been given.
The town's economy will rely on inwards investment.
An inhabited bridge over the A34 dual carriageway, taking inspiration from Birmingham and Florence, will be the signature architectural feature.
The prospective developer is [http://www.parkridgeholdings.com/ Parkridge Holdings UK]

Detailed plans for the half of the site SE of the A34 await further ecological study. This area includes the Woodsides Meadow Nature Reserve (Wendlebury Meads) and ancient woodland.

Elimination of the car

An eco-town feature will be the transport system.
There will be a single point of road traffic entry/exit for the whole town near J9 of the A34/M40.
It is envisaged that the majority of workers in this town will commute either by car, bus or train to work. The commutes will vary from 10 miles [Oxford] to 70 miles [London]
It is thought that Prologis, the parent company of Parkridge Developments will base a transport depot at this location giving trucks/lorries easy access to the region's road and motorway network. The ecological/environmental impact of this development is yet to be determined.
Travel within the town will be by free tram. Homes will never be more than 200m from a stop. It is not known how disabled/elderly will get to stops without a car.
Travel to Oxford and Bicester will be free by train from a new station and improved railway line. The Oxford-Bedford line will be reopened as far as Milton Keynes. Costings for this are expected to be in the region of £150-200m. The funding source for this feature is yet to be determined.
There will be a park and ride service from J9 of the M40 thereby increasing traffic densities and air pollution in the area.

mall communities

Small schools will be located throughout the town and will be a focus of the urban architecture. [no detail given]
Many small shops so that they are never far from any home.
A "proper" high street. [no detail given]

Layout

There will be extensive green spaces ("green infrastructure") and allotment gardens for all. This will require substantial land area and is not visible on the proposal plans
There will be a large commercial area for offices and industry. No detail of commerce/industry given in proposals. The environmental and ecological impact of these areas has not been established.

Energy and environment

There will be a combined heat and power (CHP) station in the NW corner of the site. The energy source for this power station is likely to be fossil fuel, resulting in an increased local concentrations of greenhouse gasses, S0x, N0x and air-borne particulates.
Waste disposal innovation [no detail given] . No infrastructure development costings have been given or estimated. Without a viable road network, the waste disposal system will indeed require innovation.
Water management innovation [no detail given] . Thames Water, the region's water utility company has made no provision to provide water or sewage treatment in this area. These is no readily available infrastructure to support a town of this size.

Housing

Housing will be located in a compact, high population density, urban core of 220 ha.
The distribution of dwelling types will be significantly skewed towards affordable housing.

ummary of published criticism

Unsustainable, unrealistic

Figures for expected car ownership and traffic flows are unavailable from the developers. This renders an objective assessment of whether the proposal meets eco-town exemplary transport criteria impossible and the ongoing government consultation meaningless.

Normally 15,000 dwellings would be expected to generate 10,000 car journeys at peak hours [ [http://www.weston-on-the-green.org.uk/Files/Statement%20from%20Weston-Front%20on%20eco-town%20proposal%20-%20April%202008.doc Weston Front: Statement ] ] . A 100% modal shift to rail is completely unrealistic. It is therefore highly likely the proposal will break the eco-town rules for sustainability and for exemplary design [ [http://www.rtpi.org.uk/item/1529/pg_dtl_art_news/242/pg_ftr_art Royal Town Planning Institute: Increased Car Use Could Damage Ecotowns Environmental Credibility] ] given the existing levels of road congestion at the site.

Inappropriate, unnecessary

Oxfordshire County Council [ [http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wps/portal/publicsite/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKL94039HcGSZnFO8WHOepHogtZIoSC9L31fT3yc1P1A_QLckMjyh0dFQGEMERR/delta/base64xml/L0lDU0lKQ1RPN29na21BISEvb0VvUUFBSVFnakZJQUFRaENFSVFqR0VBLzRKRmlDbzBlaDFpY29uUVZHaGQtc0lRIS83X0xfOUNSLzE2?WCM_PORTLET=PC_7_L_9CR_WCM&WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=http://apps.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wps/wcm/connect/Internet/Press+releases/Press+Releases+archive/2008/April/WN+-+Leader%27s+blog%3A+standing+firm+on+Weston+Otmoor+plans Leader's blog: standing firm on Weston Otmoor plans ] ] policy is to concentrate development around the county towns, not on working farmland.

Cherwell District Council has already planned for 12,000 new houses over the next two decades and these are to be sited to develop and support existing towns.

The developers suggest [ [http://cherwell-consult.limehouse.co.uk/file/184487 Cherwell District Council: Supplemental Consultation on Site Allocations Issues and Options: New and Amended Sites] ] that a completely new town must be built because attempts to improve transport and housing in Oxford have failed, not because they are an impossibility.

Other more appropriate sites exist, such as the entirely brownfield RAF Upper Heyford.

Unemployment in both Cherwell District and Oxfordshire [ [http://oeo.geog.ox.ac.uk/research/bp11.pdf Oxfordshire Quarterly Economic Update] ] is half the national average. New jobs are not needed and would have to be taken from elsewhere.

Impact on existing towns

Bicester suffers from lack of infrastructure, limited social and community facilities, and a town centre that is in dire need of development. Resource competition would have a negative impact, as it also would on nearby Kidlington.

Water stress

The site is on a flood plain and in an area of high "water stress" or shortage. It drains into the River Ray and thence, after 3km, into the River Cherwell which frequently floods in winter. Increased water run-off will flood the village of Islip and Otmoor, an RSPB nature reserve and area of semi-wetland. The small village of Wendlebury, half a mile from the proposed site, is often subject to in-house flooding. The water flows from the site towards and into the village. Building on this flood plain will only exacerbate the problem.

Ecological impact

By using an entirely greenfield site, the eco-town rule requiring a "net benefit in landscape and bio-diversity" [ [http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/ecotownsgreenerfuture Eco-towns: Living a greener future - consultation paper] ] is immediately broken. The proposal is by definition not an eco-town.

25% of the site is within the Oxford greenbelt and much of Weston on the Green is within a conservation area.

Development would destroy the Woodsides Meadow Nature Reserve [ [http://www.bbowt.org.uk/do_download.asp?did=24934 Weston Otmoor: an eco-town that will destroy ecology] ] , a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and ancient woodland. The site is almost entirely working farmland with hedgerows and crops that sustain diverse wildlife.

The dramatic rise in food prices requires a large increase in agricultural output. " Farmland will be just too important for greenfield development" [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/04/27/do2708.xml The countryside is about to boom, Daily Telegraph, 27.4.08] ] .

The development includes a power station for Combined Heat and Power. A 300 megawatt gas fired cogeneration plant would emit up to 1,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas per day. [ [http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/opareport/Part%204%20-%20Consulting%20Reports/Part%204.4%20SENES%20Final%20Report%20to%20OPA.pdf Ontario Power Authority: Methods to Assess the Impacts on the Natural Environment of Generation Options"] ] If run on wood chips, it would consume 5,000 tonnes daily. If run on rubbish, it would consume all of Oxfordshire's annual output. Prevailing winds will carry any particulate fallout and pollutants from the proposed power station (NW corner of site) over Bicester. Unless the power station runs on biomass, the town will violate the eco-town zero carbon rule.

The proposed eco-town will not have "higher order" [ [http://www.parkridge.co.uk/category.php?category=6&menuitem=5167 Proposal for Weston Otmoor by Parkridge Holdings] ] facilities (those of a larger town such as Oxford) and would thus increase car use.Currently the villages of Isilp and Woodeaton suffer increasing traffic due to the establishment of a ‘rat- run’ with motorists avoiding the heavily congested A34. The construction of Western Otmoor would further add to the over-use of the rural road network in this area of North Oxfordshire.

ociological aspects

If eco-towns are not created where the jobs and services are, we will create ghettos [ [http://www.rics.org/RICSWEB/getpage.aspx?p=ZBPEBCoStE2j3dEzcOFkug Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors:Down with Brown Towns] ]

"It may be better to look at the possibility of creating eco-extensions to existing communities, rather than completely new towns." [ [http://www.rics.org/RICSWEB/getpage.aspx?p=Tte2e-LABE6r0Yqr9gAjzw Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors:Four sites shortlisted to become Eco-Towns] ] [ [http://www.politics.co.uk/issue-of-the-day/rics-eco-towns-run-ghetto-risk-$1216961$1216903.htm Rics: Eco-towns run ghetto risk] ]

The distinguished designer and broadcaster, Kevin McCloud (Grand Designs), is building two eco-suburbs of 200 homes each in Swindon. He regards these developments as experimental and aims "not to create ring-fenced ghettos but to focus on the social and physical relationships between Hab projects and the wider community" [ [http://www.habhousing.co.uk/Flex2/ Happiness Architecture Beauty] ] . Eco-town design is in its infancy and Weston Otmoor is far too big to used as an experiment.

The eco-town will not have the retail or leisure facilities of a large town such as Oxford. One of the few benefits for low income families of living in a large city is that many facilities, often free of charge or discounted, are on their doorstep or a short bus ride away. This will not be the case for the eco-town in the middle of the countryside. The bias towards low income households, the elimination of cars and the lack of facilities appears designed to increase the deprivation of already disadvantaged families and to contain them in a rural ghetto.

References

External links

* [http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingsupply/growthareas/ecotowns/ Communities and Local Government: Eco-towns]
* [http://www.parkridge.co.uk/category.php?category=6&menuitem=5167 Proposal for Weston Otmoor by Parkridge Holdings]
* [http://www.westonfront.com/index.html The Weston Front Campaign]
* [http://www.westonotmoor.org.uk The Weston Otmoor Militia] a radicalised splinter faction of the Weston Front
* [http://www.the-weston-front.org The unofficial Weston Front Campaign]