If this happens, I'm leaving to live on the moon, and taking my car with me. (I'll take a drill and oil refinery with me).

Rob Johns, Gloucester,

Ask youself if you would EVER opt to live in one of these desperate Brave New Labour Worlds if you had any sort of choice.

No? There's a surprise. Nor would I. The only residents will be the denizens of the new "affordable" and "social" housing who will be "allocated" their house Soviet style.

Ged, Chesham, UK

What if in ten or twenty years cars run on hydrogen and become carbon-neutral? Then you will be stuck with cities where you are forced to give up commodities for no reason at all! I am very weary of these planning utopias, they rarely work!

Luca, Cambridge, UK

With a distinct housing shortage which leads to ever increasing prices we need to build more houses. We recognise the environmental impact of housing so surely any developments that provide housing with a much smaller carbon footprint must be welcome.

Tony Groom, Cressing,

So these towns are useless to anybody who has Children, are disabled or are elderly.

What makes the government think they can get public transport right in these towns when they completely fail everywhere else in the country.

Paul, Isle of Wight,

".... GPs surgeries... will be within walking or cycling distance". The people who dreamt up this scheme have obviously not consulted the Dept of Health which proposes to close local GPs surgeries and consolidate health services in "polyclinics" in centralised locations!

Roy, Oxon,

What a load of codswallop! If the proposed town between Elsenham & Henham goes ahead, what happens if a resident needs to go to hospital ... in Cambridge! The nearest supermarket, miles away, no police station, currently no doctor's surgery and what evidence is there that we'll have one.

Vanessa, Henahm,

George was right. 1984 here we come.

Steve, Perth, Australia

Look like Eco-prisons to me! Has the planner who dreamed up this scheme bothered to use their one brain cell to ask this question: How as this is a new town and there will be no jobs in this town will everybody travel to work if they are going to be fined for driving out of the town?

Stephen, St. Ives, England

Why do we need so many houses? This bloomin government has let so many people in. We lose our countryside cos of their mitakes/ PS Don't think much of the flashing bus timetable idea - what a waste of energy. What happened to the good old fashioned paper bus timetable? Chuck it out

John Bain, Yapton, West Sussex

The government should not get involved.

If there is genuine market demand then the developers can choose to build them and then people will buy them.

Why should the government get involved? Do they wish to use these towns as social housing monoliths?

matty, frankfurt, germany

Ok, So the one thing that is not answered in this idea is where does personal freedom end and where does it start? Obviously lessons learned from the Soviets not applied in this hair brained idea.

Ross Tennison , Reno, United States

The fairly redundant green spaces will be an attraction for the traveller community. But better there than on valuable farm land where they interfere with food production.

John Hudson, Stansted, UK

Will the buses run all night? If not, what do you do if you have missed the last one? If so, how green is it running lots of empty buses?

John Grant, Cambridge, England

Houses in Pennbury will certainly be affordable! Indeed they will be worthless as no normal person will want to live there. Perhaps some worker ants will be persuaded to reside in this Potemkin village and swallow the Brown stuff, but they won't be members of the government or Co-Op management.

Mark Lawden, Stoughton, Leicestershire

Clearly this project is well researched. To associate garages with cars is absurd. Garages these days are storage areas, workshops, for hobbies, for childrens toys etc. I do not see any storage buildings in the concept plan. So where will all these items be kept and essential activities be done?

Dicken, Farnborough, UK

If, indeed, the proposed sites are greenfields, then the criticism is valid. Shoving auto use restrictions down people's throats won't win friends either. The other ideas sound good, though.

Michael, Pueblo, Colorado, US

Q - what's the difference between prison and an eco-town?
A - You can leave prison.

If we leave the government to decide what counts as adequate transport links, people will be stuck (outside Cambridge, public transport starts only after 7amlargely ends after 9pm).

John Scott, London,

I wouldn't like to be on my way to somewhere important and have to spend ten minutes walking to my car in a torrential downpour.
I'd also not be too happy with keeping such an expensive possession (and surely, they'd all have to be brand new "green" cars at that) so far away from home, either.

Annie, W Midlands,

More Nulabour lunacy.

Josh Martin, Preston, England

Doesn't the UK have enough "Club Fed" prisons already?

Freeborn Kee, Vancouver, Canada

Utterly ridiculous! If petrol driven cars are to be banned ,then electric golf carts or something similar should be permitted.These vehicles would not be permitted on public roads.
Additional space for normal vehicles would also be necessary on the outskirts.

Chris Robinson, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Here in Windsor our Conservative Council last November scrapped a planned Park & Ride by J6 of the M4 that was intended to reduce tourist coaches & cars entering the town.
Instead they hope to build one or more town centre multi-storey car parks paid for by SEERA to maximise parking revenues !

Peter Hooper, Windsor, UK

I like the idea of the eco towns. I live in Loughborough and try to cycle/walk to places. I welcome a town that was designed to be accessible to all from anywhere in the town.

On the other hand, I also need a car so I dont like the idea of charges to leave, penalising those living in eco-towns!

Liam, Loughborough, UK

Again with "New Labour" we have to bear their pure gimmick politics.

When Gordon "Immense Intellect" Brown states proudly that 30% of these new homes will be "affordable" , does he mean that 70% will be un-affordable ??.

Who will buy these unaffordable homes ??.

Chris, Doncaster,

"..key to the design would be the ability to plan towns with walkways and cycle paths, so that cars would be used less"

Do they never learn? - Anyone ever been to Thamesmead estate in the evening? - Feral youths take over all the walkways, making ordinary residents fearful of going anywhere!

Expat Dave, Paphos, Cyprus

oh my god. can this government get any more controlling. next thing will be a tax on leaving the house.who would want to live in a prison camp like the one described in the article.

bob townsend, wirral,

Perhaps Gordo should set an example and walk from Downing Street to Parliament. A mother of young children is expected to walk 10 mins to fetch her car, load the kids, pram then shop and deliver goods and kids back home, return car to park and walk home - utter madness

Liz Brown, Montmartin en Graignes,

A nightmare scenario of residents beng permanently bullied by officialdom.

Victor, NW Kent, Swanley, Kent

What arrangements are foreseen for the handicapped, who are increasingly disadvantaged by these schemes? For those of us unable to walk more than 100 meters or negotiate steps, more and more places are becoming inaccessible unless we turn to wheelchairs -- which bring other problems.

CPT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Yet more social engineering and incompetent zealotry. The market is proving better at controlling car use than any green tax.
Car sharing schemes will become the only affordable option for ordinary people. Yes, design these towns around people but accept that some car use is positive and necessary.

Charles , Epsom, UK

Proposal in Leicestershire is for 15,000 new eco-homes in an area with under 1% unemployment and miles from decent A class roads or motorways. Reverse congestion charging is the plan by the developer (The Co-op) to bribe people to leave their cars at home and use irregular public transport.

Kevin Feltham, Leicester, UK

There is no difference between Brown and Cameron on this platform. It's just different ways of achieving one aim. Anyway the total Human race only produces something like 3% of total global CO2. The rest is produce by nature. What next a ban on trees!! Bring on the election

Steve, Manchester,

Fined for driving out of town? Labour, you have the plot. You will lose the election, and you have already lost you sanity. Just get out. GO!
Who on earth would be dumb enough to live in an eco town? I can't believe our country has spawned these imbeciles who believe people will accept this?

Steve Fermor, Redditch, Worcs.

I don't think this government either understands or cares what real humans are, how they live and progress, what they need to do, and how they want to live.

David Davis, Liverpool, UK

There is a simple solution.
have an all party agreement that for personal transport only electric powered vehicles are allowed in cities and towns by, say ,2025.
Guaranteed zero tax of any kind till then
Limited to 30mph,no safety features, cheap to build repair and insure,a modern 2CV clone

Michael Wilkinson, Telford, UK

I see no mention of the intensive employment creation programs that will be required in order to provide all the residents of these "Eco-towns" with sufficient jobs within walking distance that they can afford not to drive out of the town at peak times. Are they giving the houses away? Eco slums?

Bob, Reading,

Sounds great to me, as someone fed up with cars congesting and polluting the place wherever I go, happy to have avoided the trouble and expense of running one and, I believe, healthier for the walking I do as a result. But surely the charge should be for driving INTO town, not out of it?

Barry, Wallington, UK

The World has gone mad! STOP...I WANT TO GET OFF.....

MAGGIE SUTTON, Gt Dunmow, Engand (I thought!)

Doesn't sound a great place to be old or disabled. Take poor young families, put them in a town with Big Brother style restrictions, no choice of schools, expect their main entertainment to be running an allotment, and only let them out when they are too old to walk to the car park. Expect riots.

Derek R, Weston on the Green, Oxfordshire

If only half the 5000 houses have two cars that is still 7500 cars in an isolated, probably unsecured location! The local criminal fraternity will be very grateful to the developers for providing them with such a good selection to nick, joy ride in and damage! Good luck getting insurance.

Victoria Melbourne-Webb, Yapton, nr Ford EcoTown, West Sussex

Great idea Mein Fuhrer...Gordon Brown, we live in a democracy. We change lifestyles through persuasion and negotiation, not politicians forcing their ideology and ideas on us. Oh, and if you think you have a mandate from 'the people,' go on, call an election!

colin, Stirling, UK

Oh, let joy be unconfined. Gordon Brown is going to eco-bulldoze nasty, unregulated countryside in order to build a bantustan for greenies. Fair enough, one wouldn't want to let these people roam freely, but will the rest of us be allowed <i>in</i> to laugh at their antics? Worked for Bedlam.

Natalie Solent, Bishop's Stortford, UK

Don't forget that the Hanley Grange proposed Eco town is from Tesco's - no doubt they would do very nicely if the only alternative to buying from them would be to pay a fine if you wanted to go to an alternative supermarket!

Geoff DIxon, Climping, West Sussex

I cannot imagine there will be many people who would wish to buy a price inflated house in one of these concentration camps and they will certainly not be able to sell it when they find they want to get out.

Hugh Bladon (Maj Ret'd), weston-super-Mare,

No one will want to live in such a place. Try carrying four bags of groceries on a bicycle. Its another authoritarian imposition. 'Cutting carbon emissions' will have any effect on the climate. Co2 is only 4 percent of greenhouse gas and we are responsible for 4 percent, ie ; 16 percent.

C.Wood, Camberley, UK

No doubt the genius developers will cut down all the trees and concrete over everything before building. Could someone send them to, say, an apartment complex in Altlanta and show them how to build around the trees. I wish we could build places with a bit of privacy.

Mark Duffin, Stratford, UK

Imagine having to carry your child(ren) and the shopping etc for up to 10 minutes in the cold, damp darkness of our winter.
Also I wonder how safe people will feel

Jim, Burnley,

But Ford in Sussex already HAS an open prison. Why does it need a second one?

Gordon Alexander, Frome, UK

This is a cunning plan by Gordon Brown: make living there so unattractive that house prices drop and - Hey Presto! - affordable homes. Brilliant.

Roddy Campbell, Christchurch, New Zealand

I expect there will be free people carriers for the elderly and the disabled - as concessionary travel?

Grattan Endicott (born 1924), Liverpool,

Brown is living in cloud cuckoo land. How would the elderly get around in the rain, in the snow, if they could not walk without the aid of aids.

victor arram, westclif,

What sort of community will such a town have? There won't be any older residents, or those with disabilities that rely onn cars to get about. There is an assumption that everyone wants to cycle - many don't - or can't for mobility reasons. What a future, which caters only for the able-bodied.

Valerie Wenham, London,

As an Australian. I don't think I would like to walk from Charleville to Brisbane or Sydney to get virtually non existant medical treatment....

John D.., Blackbutt, Australia

It sounds completely, utterly dire - hell on earth. Greenie couples will flock to these places, and bring up children, who will become teenagers, and will hate it and their parents and get kicked out for antisocial behaviour. Just because Germans can bear to live like that, doesn't mean we should.

Kiera Hardie, Kennaquhair, UK