For many months, MPs and other opponents of a planned new town in Warwickshire have warned that it is set to be built in the wrong place.
The 6,000-home Middle Quinton settlement will create jobs, but most of its residents won’t work in the town itself.
It will become a commuter town, with much of the population making a daily trip to and from the office.
What’s more, as it is located in a fairly remote location and as the local area is reasonably affluent – with little demand for the affordable housing Middle Quinton will provide – new residents are likely to come from some distance away.
But their workplaces won’t move with them. Which means they will face quite a lengthy commute.
The result will be busy roads and more pollution, hardly what one would expect from an eco-town.
Now, their campaign has received an unexpected boost from the Government itself.
A document produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government sets out the pros and cons of Middle Quinton, near Stratford-on-Avon, as an eco-town location.
There are some strong arguments in favour, such as the fact that the site is almost entirely brownfield land which could be put to use without losing greenfield space.
But, remarkably, the arguments against tally very closely with what protesters have been saying all this time.
It must cause the Government to think again about whether it should really be pursuing a potential new town at Middle Quinton’s proposed location.
Eco-towns look increasingly like a vanity project, designed to prove a commitment to the environment.
