Rural campaigners have warned of local protests throughout the country after Gordon Brown announces this week that he is to press ahead with his eco-towns project.

On Thursday the Government will finally name three or four sites in the South and South West that have been chosen to proceed in the first tranche of zero-carbon developments.

The Times has learnt that the front-runners are located in four Conservative councils: Whitehill-Bordon, East Hampshire; China Clay Community, St Austell, Cornwall; North Bicester, Cherwell District Council; and Rackheath, Greater Norwich. Each is said to have local authority backing and will therefore have an easier route through the formal planning consultation.

However, John Healey, the Housing Minister, will admit that the timetable has slipped and say that the first towns of 5,000 to 10,000 homes each will be “under way” rather than built by 2016 as originally envisaged. The remainder will be “under way” before 2020.

Mr Healey is also likely to name those in the second wave — bringing the total to ten — although he will say that more preparation is needed before they can go through the planning stages.

The eco-town programme has been beset with difficulties since a shortlist of 15 was proposed 14 months ago. Developers have pulled out of several projects because of local opposition and lack of finance, while many of the sites have been deemed environmentally unsuitable.

Rural campaigners have tried to block the plans, warning that the anti-car towns, with underground recycling facilities, allotments, drive-free zones, parking at town edges and biomass fuel, would gobble up greenfield sites.

John Venning, chairman of the Hampshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said yesterday that the main problem for the Whitehill-Bordon site was the lack of transport links and the decision that 40 per cent of the extra 5,000 homes to be built would be for affordable housing.

“We’ve got a lot of problems coming up,” he said. “The Government says the eco-homes are zero carbon but it has not thought of the extra carbon from public transport and cars.”

There were also local concerns about wildlife, as much of the area near the new developments has been designated as protected sites.

Concerns about transport have been raised in the plan to build six small “eco-villages” around St Austell. “The transport links are non-existent,” said Tony Hilton, a CPRE campaigner.

In North West Bicester, near Oxford, rural groups are more worried about building on greenfield sites. “We are clearly uncomfortable that more green fields will disappear and certainly the affected landowners and nearby villages are most unhappy,” said Helena Whall, of CPRE Oxfordshire.

Whitehall sources conceded yesterday that the recession had made the original targets overambitious.

The total list of ten will allow Mr Brown to claim that his scheme is on target, but housing sources suggested that the second list has been hastily added to stop an outcry from developers that have already committed about £2 million each to the scheme.

In January experts suggested that only one site, Rackheath, on the former RAF Coltishall airfield near Norwich, was “genuinely viable”.

A spokesman for the Communities Department said yesterday: “The shortlisted locations for eco-towns have been subject to a rigorous assessment process and will be announced to Parliament this week.”

Gideon Amos, director of the Town and Country Planning Association, welcomed the move to go ahead with the plan. “Despite the problems of such a radical programme we will at last see the kind of developments we urgently need to tackle environmental and demographic priorities.”

But Grant Schapps, the Tory housing spokesman, said that the eco-town programme had been a lesson in how to destroy a reasonable-sounding idea with incompetence. “It’s time for ministers to admit that you can’t create sustainable communities by riding roughshod over local people.”

What is an eco-town?

• Will have between 5,000 and 15,000 “zero carbon” houses, 30 per cent of which are affordable

• Will be powered by biomass fuel and solar panels and there will be underground recycling plants for rubbish disposal

• Will be no more than a ten-minute walk from local schools

• Will be car-free zones; parking on the outskirts and free internal buses

• Residents will be expected to make 50 per cent of journeys on foot

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