Major rethink of garden cities and towns needed, according to CPRE

A new report by Transport for New Homes, Garden Cities and Towns: Visions and Reality, was released today.

Crispin Truman, chief executive of CPRE, the countryside charity, said:

‘The irony in the ‘garden cities’ development plans is that access to green space has become an afterthought. Our towns and villages have massive potential to become low carbon, great places to live with an abundance of green space. Today’s report by Transport for New Homes has exposed that this is not what communities are getting. Instead, we risk creating a new generation of mediocre housing estates in the middle of nowhere, with too few public transport links.

‘Our research with University College London has also shown that three-quarters of recent large housing developments are considered to be of mediocre or poor design and should never have been given planning permission. For the government to begin delivering’ conservation areas of the future’, we need to see public transport links, access to green space, walking and cycling put firmly ahead of road building.’

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