The eco-town is spreading

Lat night, I attended a public meeting at the Keay Theatre in St Austell to find out more about the proposed first phases of the ORASCOM / IMERYS eco-town. There were about 160-180 people present.

The meeting was told that local people would soon be consulted on plans to build 1,800-2,500 properties at Baal/West Carclaze and 700-800 at Par Docks – an increase in housing numbers from those previously suggested.

I took the opportunity to speak and question how the plans were evolving.

The developers continue to state that they have plans for 5,000 homes in the eco-own spread over five sites. But in the original proposals (2008), only one thousand homes were planned for Baal. Earlier this year, that figure was increased to 1,500 properties and now they say they want to build 1,800-2,500 units. The development site has been also been increased in size, taking in some areas of green field.

At Par, the original proposal (2008) was for 250-500 properties, but that has now been increased to 700-800. Originally the site also had six hectares of employment land but on the most recent plans the ‘business park’ had been removed and replaced with more housing.

Local people need to know what the developers are planning for the eco-town as a whole. Do they plan to provide less houses in Blackpool, Bugle and Nanpean? Or do they plan to increase the size of the eco-town overall? What about the employment space?

There are many questions to which local people need the answers.