NEW TOWNS


without intervention from the Bank of Mum & Dad, which in many cases will never be forthcoming. Not all quarters of the country will


need more homes, of course, but in those areas with expanding econo- mies in which demand is already high and growing, there is already an issue which needs addressing as a matter of urgency. Take Aberdeen and Aberdeen- shire, where demographic experts say an incredible 75,000 new homes will be needed within the next 20 years to keep pace with demand. No amount of urban regeneration or clever use of brownfi eld sites will


satisfy that


demand, so we will also need to build outside the city and also develop the infra-structure, which is one of the reasons why the need to build the city by-pass has become ever more pressing. Indeed, it is in the North East where a major


crossroads has been reached with the proposal to go back to the future and start building shiny new towns and new villages. Specifi cally, the proposal is for a new town called Chapelton of Elphick, which will be ten miles outside of Aberdeen and will have an initial 4,000 houses, with an anticipated extra 5,000 houses in the long-term. Just to put


that in perspective, a


town of 9,000 houses would be double the size of Oban and have a far bigger population than St Andrews or Peterhead. Even then, it will only fulfi l just over ten percent of the area’s antici- pated demand, which gives a sense of just how great the demands for new homes will be. As with


the Aberdeen bypass, whose


construction was fi rst announced in 2003 but where endless objections mean that construc- tion has yet to start, there will be those who will do all in their power to stop pristine farm- land being consumed by new settlements (indeed, this has been the primary line of attack by objectors to the Chapelton of Elphick scheme). But building new settlements rather than simply doubling or trebling existing towns and villages in size has to form a key part of any house-building strategy. There are several major landowners who are


already keeping an eye on how the Chapelton of Elphick scheme works out with a view to build- ing similar towns elsewhere. In at least one of those cases, the fi nance has already been raised and the thousands of invaluable construction jobs that would accompany such a massive project could be in place within 18 months. The challenge now shouldn’t be to argue


endlessly over whether new towns form a part of our strategy for building new houses, it should be to ensure that when they are built


‘Aberdeen needs 75,000 new houses in the next 20 years if it is to satisfy demand’


they avoid the lessons of the post-war Famous Five. Happily, there is already a template of sorts in place in Poundbury near Dorchester in Dorset, which is famous as Prince Charles’ new model village. Much derided as some sort of nostalgic toytown designed around the Prince’s well-known architectural prejudices, this town of 2,500 houses has nevertheless fl ourished. It has done so largely because it has been


planned to have a random nature rather than resemble a whole succession of Brookside developments. If anything, there has perhaps been a little too much variety, with non-indige- nous European styles and materials chucked in for good measure. But fundamentally, the place works as a community and – unlike so many ad hoc extensions to villages, or even standalone developments like Cardrona in the Borders or Wemyss Bay in Inverclyde - has a centre with all of the facilities from pubs to shops that a modern town needs to gel and prosper. From the drawings of Chapelton of Elphick,


which include streets that look like alms houses and others that are reminiscent of the narrow streets in East Coast fi shing villages, every effort has been taken to plan a town so that it looks as if it has grown organically. In fact that is the specifi c aim, with the developers basing their designs on the layout of much-loved and traditional East Coast towns such as Montrose, Stonehaven and St Andrews. The bottom line is that we need houses,


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and right now we need the jobs that go with them, so they are going to come. The present system is not only insuffi cient for our needs, it is ineffi cient and divisive. Even those who love Gregory’s Girl or enjoy driving around rounda- bouts will admit that previous New Towns could be improved upon – and doing just that rather than opposing them outright is exactly where we should now be concentrating our efforts.


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