News Release

15th September 2008

COURT RULES AGAINST ECO TOWNS

In a High Court hearing, Mr Justice Collins ruled on 12th September: "I note there must be concern that the defendant, Secretary of State Hazel Blears, may have disqualified herself from considering any planning application for an eco-town because of perceived bias in its favour." This now opens the way to a judicial review into the way eco towns have been promoted by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Michael Fabricant now says: "The Curborough eco-town proposal at Fradley has now been withdrawn, but developers are still proposing a 5,000 home town on that site. Their justification is based on the Government originally identifying it as being suitable for construction. But with this High Court ruling - following on from an admission by the Housing Minister, Caroline Flint, that she was unaware that 90% of the development would be on a green field site, any application for development on that site should now be rejected.