Let it be a
real garden city
in both name and substance
in both name and substance
Philip Ross, the founder of the New Garden City Movement has
welcomed the government’s announcement to build a new garden city in Ebbsfleet
in Kent.
Philip Ross said that “Without a doubt Ebbsfleet is a great
location for any new settlement and the need for more housing is apparent and
the argument to have it is largely won. How it is going to be built is the next
question”.
Philip Ross is the former Mayor of Letchworth Garden City
and author of the book ‘21st Century Garden Cities of To-morrow’
along with Prof. Yves Cabannes of Bartlett College at UCL. The book integrates
12 key social principles that should be the foundation of any new garden city
and provides examples of how to achieve them and is already being into Chinese
where there is great interest in it.
Much of the land in
Letchworth is still owned by the successor to the development trust that built
it. Today it has assets of £127m and puts pack on top of council tax an
additional
£7.5m into the community, “Not bad” says Ross, “for a population of only 35,000”.
£7.5m into the community, “Not bad” says Ross, “for a population of only 35,000”.
Philip Ross said “It is important that it is not just to
consider this to be a new town rebadged as garden city for marketing purposes”.
He added that “A garden city needs be a long term project
that provides economic, environmentally and socially sustainability. That means
that like the original garden city it should
capture the rising land values and prosperity of the city for good of the community as has happened in Letchworth not just money to build it but to run it
in perpetuity.
capture the rising land values and prosperity of the city for good of the community as has happened in Letchworth not just money to build it but to run it
in perpetuity.
It should be built in harmony with the countryside and be
carbon neutral. Thirdly it should be socially sustainable providing affordable
homes in perpetuity. “
Ross said “A Garden City is more than just homes, offices
and factories – it is a community. To create that sense of community you need a
sense of place, pride and belonging. That is what a garden city is. It isn’t a
slab of 15,000 Brezhnev style homes nor is it a cluster of gated communities”.
Ross noted, “You need to promise more than just homes, you
need to provide a vision for a new community and a promise of how it will be
run and what it will look like. That is what our 12 principles aim to provide.
We will send a copy to George Osborne and I am confident in them and all the
parties to work together on this.”
Philip Ross
Rosspe@talk21.com
