NEWS ARTICLE: The Director at Conran & Partners explains why Greenfield sites can accommodate green development - if we sideline 'nimbys'.

(Matthew Wood, RICS Business, January 2008, www.webmags.co.uk )

The emphasis on previously developed land is absolutely correct and should continue, but we do also need to consider the alternatives.

Over the past year we've been working on proposals for low-impact development in green-field locations, loosely based on the way Center Parcs develop their sites in former commercial plantation-forest. This offers a potential twin benefit of major development and increased biodiversity. In a rural context it will also be easier to explore more holistic approaches to development where the agricultural hinterland can be considered as an integral part of the development, in terms of food and bio-fuel production, waste and water management.

We're also part of a multi-disciplinary working group initiated by Brian Waters and Ben Derbyshire of HTA, looking at how to attract investment from beyond the buy/build/sell business of the national house-builders. We are exploring models of tenure that will allow investors to 'stay in' for a minimum of 25 years - more like a business park than a housing estate. It seems to us that such an approach is probably essential if we are ever to achieve the fully integrated approach to utilities provision on which large scale zero-carbon development is predicated.

The government's Eco-Towns initiative promises help to a number of flagship initiatives through the local planning system, if they meet the minimum size threshold, but elsewhere in rural areas urban extensions of 2,000-3,000 homes will still be common.

From personal experience at community level, it's clear that wider consultation will only draw out more NIMBYs, and where development goes ahead against residents' expressed views, public confidence in the planning system will be significantly undermined. The emphasis should not be on asking locals what they think, but on pro-actively explaining why concentrating development in sustainable locations is preferable to 'spreading it out' across a number of smaller settlements - which to most lay-people seems like a common-sense approach.

For more information please contact: Emilie Lemons, Conran & Partners: cp@conranandpartners.com

January 2008

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