Northstowe’s mistake was to come through the democratic planning system. It is part of the local structure plan; has the support of local authorities and counts against agreed local housing targets. To be an “eco-town” it would have to be imposed by the government and be outside the structure plan....

Hanley Grange, if it happens, will be more like Roundabout Grange – a remote, car-reliant satellite dropped into farmland within a web of main road junctions, with a nice big Tesco to attract car-borne shoppers from the villages. And yet it will wear the eco-town badge denied to the much more credible Northstowe.