Pioneering eco-town is planned for village

Jan 16 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

THOUSANDS of new homes could be built in a pioneering green living project in a Northumberland seaside village – where a £2bn clean-coal power station is already planned.

The two major schemes could put the former pit community of Cambois firmly on the national map as a key location for eco-friendly housing development and power generation.

The Banks Group has unveiled multi-million-pound plans to build a 5,000-home eco-town on 800 acres of land in the village, including the site of the former Vald Birn iron foundry which closed last year with the loss of 157 jobs.

It is one of five such sustainable communities planned by the County Durham company under the Government’s Eco-Town Programme aimed at boosting the concept of sustainable living.

Outline proposals for the Cambois scheme have been submitted by Banks to the Department of Communities and Local Government, which is expected to announce in the spring which expressions of interest from across the country are to be taken forward.

Yesterday Banks Developments said the project – taken together with RWE npower’s proposed 200-job power plant and plans to relocate the Port of Blyth to Cambois – could create a 2,500-job community covering a range of sectors. It would take about 17 years to complete, with 1,800 homes due to be delivered by 2016 if work starts in 2009.

The new community would include primary and secondary schools, a possible passenger rail link, a dedicated town centre with shopping and office buildings, community and leisure centres, a health clinic and improved road and footpath links.

A large proportion of the community’s energy requirements would be met by local generation, through a mixture of waste heat from clean-coal burning, biomass and wind turbines. Plans to build the UK’s biggest turbine close to Cambois as part of a repowered Blyth Harbour wind farm were approved last week by Wansbeck councillors.

The eco-town would be built at the other end of the village from where npower wants to construct a state-of-the-art clean-coal generating plant on the site of the old Blyth Power Station.

Yesterday Les Paton, chairman of the Cambois Community Association, said: “I was gobsmacked when I found out the details and scale of what is proposed, but this would really put the place on the map and give a huge uplift. I would describe it as fantastic news for Cambois and we would welcome it with open arms.

“It is quite surprising because Wansbeck Council have told us for years that we are not getting any new housing in Cambois and then this comes along.

“People are quite enthusiastic that it could happen, and what I really like about it is that it will not touch our allotments, play area or football pitch.”

Yesterday Justin Hancock, senior development planner with Banks Developments, said: “The Cambois site represents an outstanding and unique opportunity to create a high-quality, sustainable community of 5,000 homes by regenerating a large area of predominantly brownfield land, in a location which has suffered from decades of post-industrial decline.”

Banks says it has already outlined its proposals to Wansbeck District Council, which supports the bid in principle.