Eldest son has an extra week off school at half term (yr 7) teachers have loaded them with project work including a geography project on a UK Eco Town. For once Google and Wikipedia are not his friends because as far as we can see none have been built yet. North West Bicester is under construction the rest have been shelved or had their concepts heavily diluted. All we can find is Poundbury and Fairford Leys neither which really fit the bill. Any of the Singletrack collective know more?

Can’t help with towns, as far as I know there aren’t any but the largest scheme I know of is bedzed it’s a few years old now but I don’t know of anything else built since to a similar scale.

Bordon – Not completed, but there’s demonstation builds and land is being disposed now so forthcoming – http://www.whitehillbordon.com/

BRE is worth a visit and is also a great resource. They have an innovation park with many prototype homes to visit:
http://www.bre.co.uk/innovationpark/

I suggest that as this is emerging, that the project is all about the proposals as they stand, strategies to deliver zero carbon and other sustainability targets, then testing against actual data from the existing test projects – eg at the BRE.

Thanks guys useful links.
I’m not sure the teacher has really thought this one through as the main question they have to answer is how successful the town has been in meeting its original sustainability objectives.

Check out Tref werdd ( Green town ) at Blaenau Ffestiniog

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/projects/green-town-project-blaenau-ffestiniog

http://www.sustainwales.com/casestudy/blaenau-ffestiniog-town-council

St Austell/Carclaze Eco Town in Cornwall…currently out for public consultation but likewise, not built yet

Brighton has/d a green council

What about an eco village..
http://www.brithdirmawr.co.uk

Whats the actual definition of ‘Eco Town’?
Bit like the word ‘Sustainable development’ as people cant even decide on definitions.

Well an eco town would have one of those pyrolysis plants turning what would be landfill into electricity, backing up a safe carbon free baseload from the nearest nuke plant, and maybe some fracking going on nearby producing gas that can go straight into the diesel engines in the local transport and utility fleet as a low carbon fuel – when it isn’t being used as a domestic and low carbon alternative to coal and oil.

Or maybe it’d be a bunch of unworkable showhomes made of felt and wattle arranged around a mockup of a wind turbine, and a show market stall sporting ‘organic’ veg with some dirt rubbed on it and packed in straw.

Wot Klumpy said. Perhaps a Small Modular Reactor producing electricity, providing domestic heating and heating greenhouses?

Dunno how useful it will be, but Peterborough is trying to be UK’s environmental capital.
There is a page on the council website and everything….

http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/environment/creating_the_uks_environment.aspx

There’s action plan pdf’s, newsletters (thankfully an e-newsletter and not one that will end up in the recycling bin) and all sorts.

Klumpy – you forgot the fleet of Pious Prius in front of every house…

Whats the actual definition of ‘Eco Town’?

mmm, maybe not.

let me wiki that for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco-towns

I live in Fife’s ‘first green village’….the value of which was having the council drop off TWO – not one, but TWO 7W fluorescent bulbs (bayonet fixing mind!) and a leaflet telling us to shower, not bathe and turn the mobile phone charger (which uses less than 1W when not charging) off when not in use.

so, for the OP, nope, cant help with en ECO town, but I can quote you some ecobabble from the leaflet if it helps.

and to be fair, if it got some of the locals to shower, thats possibly not a bad thing.