Dismay as company is hired to design scheme to home up to 20,000 (From Daily Echo)

Dismay as company is hired to design scheme to home up to 20,000

10:20am Sunday 5th September 2010 in

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PLANS for a major new eco-town to home up to 20,000 people have taken a major step forward with the hiring of a company to design the controversial scheme.

Despite fears the town could virtually join Fareham to Wickham and the Government scrapping housing targets, the firms behind the plans are pressing ahead.

Prudential Assurance Company and Buckland Development have appointed Basingstoke based design and engineering consultancy Scott Wilson to draw up a masterplan for the project.

It will see between 7,000 and 8,000 homes built between Wickham, Knowle and Fareham. A planning application is expected to be made in 2012 and development largely completed by 2030.

Scott Wilson, which is leading a design team of Swedish and British architects, said the scheme was intended to be “an exemplar of environmental, social and economic development”.

In March, it was announced that Fareham Borough Council would be given £200,000 to help it undertake more detailed work, including green infrastructure assessments and studies on waste, water and renewable energy for the site, north of Junction 10 of the M27.

However, Housing Minister Grant Shapps has now reduced this payment to £100,000.

The minister is also demanding that local authorities produce further evidence that they are listening to residents and MPs in developing their plans. Scott Wilson said community engagement would be “at the heart of the masterplanning process”.

Scott Wilson’s project director Patrick Clarke, said: “This is a great opportunity to create a new community for Fareham based on the vision of local people and drawing upon best international thinking on sustainability and place making.”

Many locals are fiercely opposed to the plan and have formed a group known as South Hampshire’s Unheard Voices (SHUV) to protest.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England is a SHUV member and warns the new town would be the same size as Petersfield.

Spokeswoman Caroline Dibden said: “It is clear that there was dubious support for these new towns, but the public were always told that these numbers were forced from on high.”

However, now that regional targets were no more, she said the local authority could scrap the idea.

“If it went ahead, it would be solely Fareham Borough Council’s decision and they could not pass the buck,” she added.

Brenda Clapperton of the Fareham Society, which is also a member of SHUV, said: “We were always against this huge development in the north of Fareham which is well in excess of Fareham’s local needs, and will have a major effect on the environment of Wickham and Fareham itself.”