Carfree Communities: The Challenge for Ecotowns and Healthy Cities

Date: 20 May 2008

Location: All regions

Contact: To book a place contact Conference Administrator, Lynne Pearce on:

Tel: 0117 32 83210
Fax: 0117 32 82236

Keynote Speaker: Rosie Winterton, Minister of State for Transport

Carfree neighbourhoods have been appearing across several European countries in recent years, but 'carfree housing' in the UK has all been small in scale, so far. The guidance for the Ecotowns programme, due to be published in a few weeks, is expected to change all that.

- What are carfree neighbourhoods?
- How do they work in other countries?
- What advantages and problems do they bring?
- Is the UK market ready for such innovations?

This conference, organised by Carfree UK and the University of the West of England is a must for anyone with an interest in the Ecotowns, urban regeneration or healthy cities.

A limited number of reduced rate bursaries will be available for students and voluntary organisations on a first come first served basis.
Organised by: University of the West of England: W.H.O. Healthy Cities Collaborating Centre and Carfree UK.
For more details see: http://www.carfree.org.uk

Two new guidance * documents published by the Dept for Communities and Local Government and the Dept for Transport have now put carfree neighbourhoods at the centre of efforts to create more sustainable communities. The CLG guidance relates to eco-towns, the DfT guidance to eco-towns and growth points.

Carfree neighbourhoods have been appearing across Europe in recent years, but examples in the UK have all been very small, up to now.

Will it work here?
What are the advantages and the problems?
Who would want to buy houses where you can’t park a car?

To address these and other questions, the University of the West of England and Carfree UK are organising a one day conference on May 20th at the Royal Marriott Hotel, College Green, Bristol. The full programme and booking form are available on: www.carfree.org.uk. Carfree UK has published a Guide for Planners and Developers, which can also be downloaded from www.carfree.org.uk.
Programme:
Rosie Winterton, Minister of State for Transport
Rosie Winterton, our keynote speaker, has been a Minister at the DfT since June 2007. Before that, she was Minister of State for Health (having worked for the Royal College of Nursing before her election to Parliament). Her current responsibilities include walking, cycling and sustainable transport. In this capacity, she has helped to further the carbon reduction and active travel agendas of the Department.

Markus Heller, Architekturbüro Heller,
Markus Heller will be talking about the experience of carfree development in continental Europe. Markus works as a freelance architect in Berlin and is a board member of the World Carfree Network. In recent years he has worked as project director of the "Carfree Quarter at the Panke" in Berlin-Mitte. From 1995-2001 he was an independent consultant for the Green Party in the parliamentary council of the district Berlin-Mitte for "City Development, Building and Transportation.

Peter Lipman, Sustrans (Director of Liveable Neighbourhoods)
Peter Lipman will be talking about the prospects for genuinely sustainable transport in the eco-towns, drawing on his experience on the Communities and Local Government eco-town expert reference group. Peter is on the national planning and policy group of Stop Climate Chaos, and has worked with the DfT to write handbooks for home zones. In his personal capacity he is chair of trustees of both the Centre for Sustainable Energy, www.cse.org.uk, and Transition Network (a charity supporting the work of transition towns)

Prof. Hugh Barton, WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities (Director)
Hugh Barton will be chairing the morning session and will jointly lead the afternoon workshop on Physical Activity and social networks. Hugh is Professor of Planning, Health and Sustainability, and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Policy at U.W.E. A former town planner himself, his practical guides -‘Sustainable Settlements’ (1995) and ‘Shaping Neighbourhoods for health, sustainability and vitality’ (2003) have become standard reference books for planning authorities across the country. His work for the WHO Healthy Cities programme in Europe and the UK has aimed to build bridges between planning, design and health professionals, and his latest book commissioned by the WHO had been translated into several languages.

Anna Francis, Bioregional Consulting (Consultant)
Anna Francis will be talking about the recent experience of low car and sustainable development in this country. Anna is a sustainability consultant at BioRegional Consulting based at the eco development BedZED, specialising in sustainable transport. She works with design teams and local authorities on low car developments. She has undertaken research for Transport for London, recently co-authored a report on sustainable transport outlining the impact of different scenarios and is working with Sutton Council on their plans to create a sustainable, One Planet Living, borough

Dr Adrian Davis, JMP Consulting (Associate Director)
Dr Adrian Davis will be talking about the potential of carfree development for promoting active travel and improving public health. As a transport planner with over 20 years’ experience, he has specialised in the relationship between transport and health. He has worked for non-governmental organisations, universities, and the commercial sector. He was a co-founder of the Transport and Health Study Group (1989), has advised both the World Health Organisation and the UK Department of Health and has written policy guidance on transport and health for: the British Medical Association, Health Development Agency, NICE, Cycling England and the Acheson Inquiry into Inequalities in Health.

Steve Melia, Carfree UK and WHO Healthy Cities Centre
Steve Melia will address the questions: Why carfree? Why now? Steve is a founder member of Carfree UK, a PhD student at U.W.E. and a freelance journalist. He has spent the past couple of summers cycling across Europe, studying carfree developments and cities such as Freiburg and Groningen which have succeeded in reducing car use. In recent articles in Town & Country Planning and Local Transport Today, he proposed the concept of ‘filtered permeability’, which has now been recognised in the CLG eco-towns guidance