Post by Sherford on May 15, 2008 14:21:35 GMT
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/1922409/Prince-Charles-'eco-town'-given-green-light.html
Prince Charles 'eco-town' given green light
Last Updated: 3:59PM BST 03/05/2008
The Prince of Wales has been granted permission to create an 'eco-town' in Devon where every home comes free with a bicycle and wind-generated electricity.
Sherford, on the south west coast, is billed as the greenest settlement in Britain and will be home to 12,000 people.
The Prince's advisers have suggested that cars should be banned from some areas and three quarters of buildings fitted with solar power panels.
The ambience of the town will be traditionally English. Its Georgian-style high street will be modelled on the Wiltshire market town of Marlborough and there are plans for a cricket pitch and bowling green. No buildings will be taller than five storeys.
The Prince has said he wants to build places "we all know strike a chord in our, by now, rather bewildered hearts, however 'modern' we are - places that convey an everlasting human story of meaning and belonging".
The project is due to be completed by 2020 on the rolling farmland on the edge of Plymouth and planners intend half of all Sherford's energy to come from renewable sources on site. Wind turbines will loom over the town's 400-acre park.
Work places employing an estimated 7,000 people will have roofs planted with greenery or covered with a thin layer of rubble to encourage insects and birds. An organic farm is planned for the park.
Unlike Poundbury, the town in Dorset which the Prince built a decade ago on the Duchy of Cornwall, Sherford will be built on private land owned by the developers Red Tree.
It has been designed in collaboration with a private development consortium, including the Royal Bank of Scotland.
When first proposed residents in the neighbouring village of Brixton lodged 3,000 objections. Opposition was dropped after villagers were involved in the design process.
"This is beautiful countryside with a stream running through it and it's a d**n shame," said Derek Curtis, a parish councillor.
"But we have decided to make the best of it. We have all been to see Poundbury and architecturally it was much better than what local councils and housebuilders have done in the past."
Hank Dittmar, the chief executive of the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, said: "We try to design places that are timeless and will be as efficient and enduring in 100 years as they are today. Building something of our time can often mean we look back in 10 years and think, 'Oh my God, what were we thinking of?'.
"We have tried to study the past and its techniques and improve it."
Prince Charles 'eco-town' given green light
Last Updated: 3:59PM BST 03/05/2008
The Prince of Wales has been granted permission to create an 'eco-town' in Devon where every home comes free with a bicycle and wind-generated electricity.
Sherford, on the south west coast, is billed as the greenest settlement in Britain and will be home to 12,000 people.
The Prince's advisers have suggested that cars should be banned from some areas and three quarters of buildings fitted with solar power panels.
The ambience of the town will be traditionally English. Its Georgian-style high street will be modelled on the Wiltshire market town of Marlborough and there are plans for a cricket pitch and bowling green. No buildings will be taller than five storeys.
The Prince has said he wants to build places "we all know strike a chord in our, by now, rather bewildered hearts, however 'modern' we are - places that convey an everlasting human story of meaning and belonging".
The project is due to be completed by 2020 on the rolling farmland on the edge of Plymouth and planners intend half of all Sherford's energy to come from renewable sources on site. Wind turbines will loom over the town's 400-acre park.
Work places employing an estimated 7,000 people will have roofs planted with greenery or covered with a thin layer of rubble to encourage insects and birds. An organic farm is planned for the park.
Unlike Poundbury, the town in Dorset which the Prince built a decade ago on the Duchy of Cornwall, Sherford will be built on private land owned by the developers Red Tree.
It has been designed in collaboration with a private development consortium, including the Royal Bank of Scotland.
When first proposed residents in the neighbouring village of Brixton lodged 3,000 objections. Opposition was dropped after villagers were involved in the design process.
"This is beautiful countryside with a stream running through it and it's a d**n shame," said Derek Curtis, a parish councillor.
"But we have decided to make the best of it. We have all been to see Poundbury and architecturally it was much better than what local councils and housebuilders have done in the past."
Hank Dittmar, the chief executive of the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, said: "We try to design places that are timeless and will be as efficient and enduring in 100 years as they are today. Building something of our time can often mean we look back in 10 years and think, 'Oh my God, what were we thinking of?'.
"We have tried to study the past and its techniques and improve it."