New towns. Do we need them?

[Workingman]

They are the new plan...

I have looked at satellite maps of cities like Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and others, and there are hectares of ex-industrial sites within them sitting unused.

These places already have all utilities in place - electricity, gas, water, sewage, transport - and we need to use them. Clean them up and get building!

What we do not need is to rip up arable land for out of town commuter dormitories or solar farms. The sites I have mentioned are only a stone's throw from where the work is. They could revitalise some city and town centres, or is that too simple?

[Suff]

I've watched this with some Towns in Scotland. It's rare though. They'd rather rip up arable land and in Scotland you'd think they have plenty but much of the land is not viable for crops, only the lowlands and delta's.

[Kaz]

Your suggestion does sound more sensible Frank.....

[JoM]

That’s happening here Frank.

Gestamp occupied a large site on the south side of Cannock town centre but moved a few miles away a couple of years ago. That site has now been cleared, is currently being prepped and will be used for new homes and business spaces. That site is right by where the A5 meets the A460 and a mile or two from the M6.

In Stafford the large GE factory closed and relocated (you’ll probably remember it Frank, on the A34 on the Cannock side of the town by the railway line), the site was quickly cleared and houses are now being built. The police HQ at Baswich is now a housing estate too.

[Workingman]

Jo, the GE site was quite big. I think it designed and made various switchgear units. My FiL visited it many times as he was a regional salesman in Yorkshire for such things.

However these schemes are, relatively, quite small - 50, 60 or 70 units / homes. They are not big enough for schools, GP surgeries, shops and so on; they just add to the existing infrastructure,

The new plan is for maybe 100 sites with 10,000 people each - 1 million people.

So, we take an old town, let's say Wokingham, and drop in 10,000 people next door and it's problem solved? Or we can dig up a few food producing fields down the road with no infrastructure and all will be well?

I give up!

[JoM]

I seem to remember that when the GE site redevelopment was first mentioned there was a sort of plan to give it a village feel with a few necessary amenities but all I can see about it now is that around 400 homes are being built.

I’ve just thought of another brownfield site which is being redeveloped. Rugeley Power Station. There’ll be 2300 homes, a business area and a brand new school catering for nursery through to sixth form, that opens in September and is part of the John Taylor Academy Trust which the school Tom teaches at is part of.

[cromwell]

I agree that the brownfield sites should be used first. But the greenfield sites are cheaper to build! So no surprise that developers want to use those.
Plus a favourite tactic used by developers is to build where there is a perceived cachet to living.
So in Yorkshire developers seem very keen to build in the "golden triangle" between Leeds, York and Harrogate; and they are very keen to build four and five bedroom detached when all the pressure is at the bottom of the market.

Unfortunately the house building crisis is directly related to mass immigration. If you let immigration run in the high hundreds of thousands you will always have a housing crisis, because we can't build houses fast enough to cope with that.

[cruiser2]

A new housing dvelopment is goingto be built on the outskirts of Wigan. The main access will be rom a narrow two lane road. This leads onto the East Lancashire Road
or Leigh town center. No schools or other amenities. Imagine what it will be like during the morning and evening rush hours.

I am glad Ilive where I do.