'Model communities' embroiled in disputes

The three new "millennium communities" announced yesterday by John Prescott come after an existing project which promised to deliver a new concept in environmentally friendly ways of living but which instead has been hit by damaging controversy.

Developments in East Ketley, Shropshire, Milton Keynes and Hastings will bring to seven the number of sites chosen for such projects, which started with the creation of the Greenwich Millennium Village in south-east London in 1997.

This was hailed not just as a ground-breaking scheme in design, but also a radical venture in seeking consultation with the local community. It aimed to deliver 5,000 to 6,000 dwellings over seven to 10 years.

More than £200m has been invested by English Partnerships, the government regeneration agency, on the 300-acre site on the Greenwich peninsula, near the Millennium Dome. The development includes 1,377 homes, with 150 currently occupied. Over 230 homes have been sold to date.

Construction was slow to get off the ground and became embroiled in legal action in July last year. HTA Architects, a member of the original team that won Mr Prescott's competition to design innovative homes for the peninsula, issued a writ against the developers, Taylor Woodrow and Countryside Properties, for more than £4m. The writ claimed that the two house-builders had failed to pay HTA £985,000 for work already done, and owed the company a further £3.26m from the expected profits of the £250m project.

Ben Derbyshire, the architect leading the HTA team, started raising concerns that the development company formed by Taylor Woodrow and Countryside, Greenwich Millennium Village, was cutting costs and not sticking to the plans. The firm had already criticised the scheme for the way in which targets for sustainability and social housing were not being met.

Allerton Bywater, near Leeds, was second to be chosen in the programme, in early 1998. The redevelopment, on the 57-acre site of an old colliery, was intended to be a model of mixed-tenure development, including private and social housing as well as workspace villas. Nearby communities were alarmed by reports that the area could become a sink estate for problem families, a dumping ground for refugees, or even a huge drug rehabilitation centre.

New Islington, the former Cardroom estate in Ancoats, east Manchester, was picked in 1999 to be redeveloped into a "true" community. Plans to change the estate, which has numerous derelict houses, into an ultra-modern "village" met opposition. A local Liberal Democrat councillor, Mark Clayton, was quoted as saying: "There is concern about demolition of existing buildings in the Cardroom estate and their replacement with low-rise social housing blocks."

The local community is being consulted and a steering group of interested parties has been formed.

The Nar-Ouse Regeneration Area, a 120-acre site near King's Lynn, Norfolk, was the fourth "millennium community" to be identified. Once home to shipyards, a flour mill and a gasworks, the area is now largely derelict and abandoned. Outline planning permission has been granted and preparation work on the site is due to start soon. The project is likely to comprise 670 homes and 50,000 sqm of space for commercial and business uses.