After a slow start on the public relations front, developers behind a planned 6,000-home eco-town at Middle Quinton near Stratford-upon-Avon are beginning to see the necessity of being more open about the type of community they wish to build.

Recent weeks have seen a regular drip-feed of information, ranging from the disclosure that residents will qualify for free bicycles, cutting-edge refuse systems and cut-price electricity bills, and now today the first illustrations depicting what is being described as traditional and elegant Cotswold architecture.

It is clear that St Modwen and the Bird Group have a fight on their hands if they are to persuade doubters that Middle Quinton really will be a sustainable community and that the project is not simply a collection of fanciful notions dressed up to disguise the birth of a new commuter town in the sought-after south Warwickshire countryside where property prices are beyond the means of all but the wealthy.

Both companies insist that up to 30 per cent of accommodation will be low-cost housing, but financial details are thin on the ground while the total cost of building the eco-town and the value of the project, including profits to be made from such a huge scheme, remains a closely guarded secret.

The chances of the developers winning over political support locally are remote. It is difficult to see that any number of lavish sketches inviting comparison with the Prince of Wales’s sustainable community of Poundbridge in Dorset will convince council leaders and protest groups that Middle Quinton amounts to anything more than a back-door attempt to railroad planning authorities into approving large-scale housing development at a sensitive rural location where planning permission would never normally be given.

The developers have clearly put a lot of work into designing something which, if it goes ahead, would amount to one of the single largest building schemes ever seen in Warwickshire. It is by no means certain however, following angry public protests across the country, that the Government will press ahead with proposals to build Middle Quinton and nine other English eco-towns.

Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, has delayed until early next year a decision in order to consult more widely and several of the original eco-town proposals have been withdrawn by their backers. The result of this is to leave Middle Quinton a clear favourite for approval if Mrs Flint insists on pushing ahead with her grand plans against the wishes of local people.