First part of eco-town to include eco-pub (From Oxford Mail)

First part of eco-town to include eco-pub

7:00am Tuesday 4th January 2011 in News By Thom Airs

Tony Ives

THE first planning application for Bicester’s proposed “eco-town” has been submitted – complete with an “eco-pub”.

Developer P3Eco has lodged its pilot project application with Cherwell District Council, seeking permission for an initial 394 homes and the “eco-pub”.

The plans also include a community centre, nursery, business centre, office accommodation, primary school and three shops, including a convenience store, post office and pharmacy.

The site, covering 345 hectares to the north-west of Bicester, could eventually provide 5,000 homes.

The area was chosen by the Government in July 2009 as one of four across in England earmarked for the construction of so-called carbon-neutral “eco-towns”.

The initial application, which is expected to be followed soon by an overarching “masterplan” application, sets out proposals for the northern part of the site, close to Caversfield.

A three-week public consultation period will begin this month , Cherwell District Council has confirmed.

Former Vale of White Horse planning officer Tony Ives, of Bicester and villages Against Sham Eco-town (Base), said “tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds” of taxpayers’ money had already been spent on the scheme, despite it not being put to public consultation.

He said: “I still think it’s completely unlawful what they are doing.

“Cherwell seem to be relying totally on the Planning Principle Statement (PPS) for eco-towns and I don’t think they have any right to do that.

“The PPS doesn’t require them, as they always said, to choose the eco-town for their local plan.

“It says that the four councils which had an eco-town identified would have to go through the normal planning system.

“The normal planning system means if the site is not in the current local plan, it has to be premature.”

P3Eco was unavailable to comment. Cherwell District Council spokesman Craig Forsyth said: “The decision was taken not to launch the 21-day consultation period during the Christmas and New Year period, as this might have affected people’s ability to respond.

“It will therefore start when we send out the consultation letters, post site notices and notice of the application appears in the local press, probably this week.”

Michael Gibbard, the council’s executive member for planning and housing, said: “We can confirm we have received an application for the first phase of North West Bicester and it will be considered carefully by the planning committee in due course.”

l The eco-town application, including more than 200 supporting documents, can be viewed online by entering the reference 10/01780/HYBRID in the planning applications search at the council’s website cherwell-dc.gov.uk