Proposal for eco-town abandoned

Proposals for an 8,000-home eco-town at a greenfield site in Cambridgeshire have been abandoned after supermarket giant Tesco pulled out.

The controversial development at Hanley Grange, near the A11 and Duxford, was one of 15 carbon neutral towns picked by the government earlier this year.

The scheme's other main landowner, the charity Wellcome Trust, pulled out in July.

Tesco said it had not ruled out future development of the land.

'Blot on landscape'

Campaigners against the plans, who formed the Stop Hanley Grange (SHG) group, welcomed Tesco's decision.

Local councillor Julie Redfern, chairman of SHG, said: "We are delighted that Tesco has seen sense and this is a victory for local democracy.

"Although Tesco now talks about the possibility of going through the proper planning channels, let's not forget that a proposal for a new town at Hinxton was made a few years ago and never made it through the planning process because the location is completely inappropriate."

A Tesco spokesman said the firm put forward a "strong proposal for an environmentally-leading mixed-use development at Hanley Grange".

"We think the proposal had very good prospects of succeeding under the government's Eco Town initiative.

'Serious housing shortage'

"Although a settlement at Hanley Grange has been discussed previously, no planning decision was ever made either way," he added.

But Tesco said the firm was now dropping the eco-town plan and would look at some form of housing development through the ordinary planning process.

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said: "The whole point of developing a long list of potential locations was to get down to a shorter final list, and we remain committed to announcing this final shortlist of up to 10 potential locations early in the New Year.

"There remains a serious shortage of housing in the Cambridge area with almost 10,000 families on the waiting list for affordable housing, and this is an issue that must be resolved."