A MASSIVE eco home scheme - one of the biggest in the UK - is to feature as part of a development of Portishead's former docks

A MASSIVE eco home scheme - one of the biggest in the UK - is to feature as part of a development of Portishead's former docks.Following negotiations by North Somerset Council, all 1,000 new homes on the East Quays site at Portishead will now conform to the Building Research Establishment (BRE) EcoHomes 'very good' standard.The standard ensures that the homes, being built by the Portishead Quays Consortium, are built to an improved specification resulting in enhanced environmental performance, therefore reducing future running costs and helping the environment.The revised master plan was approved by the council's planning and regulatory committee in May.The new eco homes build on the 1,500 homes already developed at the nearby Port Marine village development in Portishead where 1,470 are rated to a good standard and 30 to an excellent standard.North Somerset Council's executive member for strategic planning and transport Councillor John Crockford-Hawley said he was delighted that so many homes in the Portishead Quays development were being built as eco homes.Cllr Crockford-Hawley said: "This is fantastic news and in the future I would like to see much greater emphasis being placed on environmentally-sustainable architecture and general housing development than we have seen to date."There are still far too many examples of mere lip service being paid to sustainable development, particularly by some of our volume house builders.