Car dependency

Researchers visited more than 20 new housing developments across England. They found that the scramble to build new homes is producing houses next to bypasses and link roads which are too far out of town to walk or cycle, and which lack good local buses.

Jenny Raggett, researcher at Transport for New Homes, said: "We were appalled to find so many new housing developments built around the car with residents driving for almost every journey. As those cars head for our towns and cities they clog up existing roads. Commuter times get longer and longer. Car-based living of this kind is not good for our health or quality of life.” Ms Raggett told BBC News planners needed to change priorities. “The problem is that planners are measured by whether they hit their targets for new housing,” she said. ‘At the moment they just approach developers who are sitting on greenfield sites and end up peppering housing round towns without any regard to whether the land is accessible or not.”

Steve Gooding, director of the motorists’ RAC Foundation, supported the research. He told BBC News: "We need new housing developments with a genuine mix of transport options, which may include the private car but not exclude other ways of getting around. It’s not much fun in one of these new estates where there’s nowhere to park out front, so there are cars all over the pavements. You have to ferry your kids everywhere, and then you drive straight into a traffic jam. The government has got to think about this properly – we don’t just need new homes anywhere we can put them – we need quality homes."

At Great Western Park near Didcot in Oxfordshire, residents climb over a fence to get where they need to go because footpaths with neighbouring areas are so poor.

At Castle Mead near Trowbridge in Wiltshire, people wanting the shops, community centre or pub have to use an underpass after dark – or brave the lorries on a by-pass without a footpath.

At Prior’s Hall Park near Corby in Northamptonshire, developers trumpeted the estate’s closeness to the M1 for the commute to London - but seven years since the first section was completed, there’s no shop or café on site. The area is criss-crossed by fast roads which make it hard to walk.