Page 10 - Hopwell Presentation (Issue) 08-02-2021
P. 10
Context
There are significant barriers to the promotion of sizeable new settlements, garden communities and sustainable urban extensions.
Seeking to justify development in a particular location simply because a promoter controls is no longer enough. Too often this creates an ethos which is “apologetic” – it proposes development, and then lists the possible benefits and pleads a case that, anyway, it will be sustainable. It then engages with narrative that any downsides or impacts can be adequately controlled and managed.
This isn’t the way that most places grew and developed historically.
Settlements exist because they had a reason to exist – they were at a strategic river crossing, or were in a natural valley where the shelter meant it was a good place to have a market. More recently, philanthropists started “sustainable” settlements – places like Bourneville, Saltaire, Port Sunlight and others were founded on the basis of creating communities around key employment locations – this was a symbiotic relationship – the mill owner needed a workforce, and the workforce wanted a good place to live.
Saltaire
