From Ecotown to Transition Town
On September 11th 2008 we released our response to the proposed Ecotown development outside Leicester. Rather than directly opposing or supporting the proposed scheme, we've tried to think about the future use of the site in a different way.
Our starting point was to see the site, which covers a substantial area near to Leicester, as potentially a great resource for the local community. We wanted to ask, independently of the Ecotown debate, how a change of use of the site could contribute to the future prosperity of Leicester and the surrounding area.
We intended to make the case that any change of use on the site should aim to help the local community to drastically reduce its reliance on fossil fuels for energy. We also put forward some ideas on what that could mean for the site, as a starting point for discussion.
You can download a copy of the report (a 1.1MB pdf file) by clicking here or read it through our website here.
Our Ideas
We'd like to see the land used so that it makes a strong contribution to the period of transition the city (and indeed the country) is entering, into a world of increasing fossil fuel prices and an increasingly urgent need to combat climate change. The response we recommend to these issues is essentially stopping using fossil fuels for energy as quickly as we can, which means redesigning our way of life so that we can meet our core needs largely through local resources.
The main thing we think this means for the site is that it should largely be used to provide resources for local people, with a focus on local food production.
We're suggesting using a Community Supported Agriculture approach to food distribution, so that a direct link can be created between producers on the land and consumers in the city. This approach would provide economic security to producers and food security to consumers. To minimise reliance on fossil fuel inputs, we've suggested cultivating the land organically using a market garden approach, with the land use designed using permaculture principles.
We think that any development of buildings or housing on the site shouldn't be on existing farmland as we see this as vital for the area's future food security, and shouldn't create a need for new resource-intensive transport infrastructure. This leaves in our view only the previously built-on parts of the Leicester Airport site available for development.
We'd suggest putting some new facilities here for people working on the site and to provide space for education on sustainable land use. If housing was to be built on the site, it would only be to house some of the people working there - we imagine something up to dozens of homes rather than the proposed tens of thousands.1 We'd suggest using natural building techniques and locally sourced materials so that any buildings have a minimal environmental impact.
There are lots of other ideas in the report too, such as making the site a place where local people can learn skills in organic growing or developing innovative ways of transporting produce, such as load-carrying tricycles or electric vehicles charged by renewable energy.
We think our proposal points a way towards a truly sustainable and inspiring use of the land, and something that local people could feel truly proud of. If we made it happen, it could put Leicester at the cutting edge of planning for a sustainable future, setting an example for other cities around the world.
What might our ideas look like with the benefit of hindsight from the future? Read all about it here...
Your Ideas
We by no means see our proposal as a "finished article" - instead our intention is for it to serve as a starting point to create a dialogue locally about the best possible future use for the site.
We invited people to share their thoughts on our ideas, and on what they would like to see the Co-op estates site being used for. Follow the link below to see the responses we got.
Go to "Your ideas for the Ecotown site"
Some links related to our ideas
Community Supported Agriculture
Permaculture
Transition Farming
Growing Communities
Leicestershire Ecotown proposal related links
Leicestershire County Council information on the Ecotown proposal.
Co-operative Estates Ecotown website.
CASCET (Campaign Against The Stoughton Co-Op Eco-Town) website
Ecotown consultation response from Leicestershire Campaign for the Protection of Rural England
Leicester Friends of the Earth response to the Ecotown proposal
1. Note - we had previously spoken of "hundreds of homes" based on the areas given in Co-operative Estates' publications for the brownfield part of the site. Having now read the CPRE's consultation response (see above) and realising that much of the "brownfield" area of the site is in fact grassland and fields, we're not convinced that so many homes would be feasible.
We should also stress that the only reason we're talking about new homes at all is based on the idea of having at least some housing available for people working on the site. Conversely, most or all people working on the site could travel from nearby villages or nearby parts of Leicester (this needn't be environmentally damaging - many people would choose to cycle if fuel prices reach very high levels). Both approaches have pros and cons, and we're not strongly committed either way on whether there should be a housing element on the site - we think it's a really interesting point to discuss further.