The ecotowns programme is suffering again after a developer quit the proposed Marston Vale scheme in Bedfordshire. O&amp;H Properties, the scheme’s developer, decided to put the settlement through the regional planning system instead of via the government’s controversial programme, which has been criticised for a lack of consultation and the fast tracking of the new towns through the planning system. Marston Vale would have contained up to 15,400 sustainable homes built on a series of sites, some former industrial areas. Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps commented: “This is a further blow to the government’s deeply flawed and discredited ecotown scheme. The fact that developers are actively seeking to distance themselves from Labour’s ecotowns demonstrates how they have lost trust in what looks like a fag end government.” <br>