A CHARITY that aims to protect Worcestershire's landscape has announced its opposition to radical proposals to build a new eco-town in the county.

Members of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Worcestershire branch think the idea is too ambitious and that planners need to concentrate on building affordable homes.

Yesterday your Worcester News revealed how up to 10,000 new environmentally homes could be built in an undecided location to make a new settlement about the same size of Evesham. It is just one of a number of options being considered.

CPRE Worcestershire chairman Frank Hill said: "A new town would take years to get through the planning process and more years to build, plus incurring the construction of a great deal of new infrastructure within and around it.

"We need homes, and particularly affordable homes, now or as soon as possible, and it is quicker to construct numerous small housing estates than one large one.

"Further, these small developments can often utilise existing facilities, such as shops and schools and public services, without the need for a massive new building programme."

Local planners are under pressure from the Govern-ment to find locations to build up to 32,000 new homes in and around Worcester, Wychavon and Malvern Hills.

As a result, officers from all three districts are working together as a part of the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy, and have produced a consultation document to find solutions to the Government Regional Spa-tial Strategy - a blueprint for how the county should look in 20 years time.

Worcester city councillor Robert Rowden, who is chairman of the Worcestershire Joint Advisory Panel, said the eco-town idea is an option that must be included in the consultation process.

Other options available are to build on the edge of Worcester, on the edge of towns and villages like Droitwich, Malvern, Pershore, Upton-upon-Severn and Tenbury Wells as well as smaller villages like Fernhill Heath, Callow End and Holt Heath, or on Green Belt land. New roads, schools, hospitals and employment land will also have to built in order to cope with the extra homes.

HAVE YOUR SAY RESIDENTS are being urged to join the debate and have their say on how many homes should be built in Worcestershire and where. The period for public consultation starts on Monday, November 5 and runs for six weeks. Comments and views should be submitted using the issues and options consultation document and questionnaire by Friday, December 14.

To obtain your copy call 01905 722233, email contact@swjc. org or visit the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy (SWJCS) website at www.swjcs.org