Greens against site

12:28pm Thursday 26th June 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Re the proposed Eco-town and referring to the letter from Gordon Matthews on June 19.

He describes himself as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Green Party. If this is so, and his views represent those of his party, then they are certainly out of step with those of the majority of environmental organisations.

I have a copy of a joint letter to Caroline Flint, the Transport Minister, which is signed by, among others, Friends of the Earth, CPRE and Sustrans.

The letter objects to the siting of the proposed eco-towns. Quoting from their letter: "...we are concerned that eco-towns at the shortlisted locations will promote car dependency because most are remote from larger conurbations, and none would easily allow for integration into existing public transport networks".

I would also be interested to know why Mr Matthews thinks Evesham would need an extra 7400 sq m of retail space.

There is already, to mind my mind, more retail capacity than can currently be supported, and empty shop premises in the town bear witness to this.

Furthermore, if "sustainable transport" were suitably encouraged, the rail links to Worcester and Oxford improved and a more logical traffic flow in the town established, the serious impact on traffic he predicts need not happen.

Peter Veasey, Childswickham.