BOSSES behind an ambitious eco-development have issued assurances that the mass termination of its directors, is “purely an administrative step” and the project is not in jeopardy.
Swiss firm Orascom Development with joint venture partners minerals company Imerys and the Eden Project, have formed the company Eco-Bos.
Over the past two years Eco-Bos has been working on bold plans to redevelop six former china clay sites and provide 5,500 environmentally friendly homes over the next 20 years.
But in the past month eight of its directors, including Eden founder Sir Tim Smit and the firm’s Samih Sawiris, have all had their roles terminated, according to Companies House.
However, John Hodkin, from Eco-Bos, whose director role was terminated on August 10, said: “This is purely an administrative step to reflect the changes within Orascom executive management structure.”
He said the “legal entity of the Eco-Bos board” had been updated to make it consistent with Orascom’s approach in its other subsidiary companies.
An advisory committee will now drive the project in its “wider scope” and includes all the directors who stood down in the past month.
The pioneering scheme focuses on regenerating 700 hectares of Imerys’s former industrial land into “one of Europe’s most sustainable communities”. Eco-Bos’s plan is to merge West Carclaze and Baal into one, with development also planned for Nanpean, Drinnick and Goonbarrow and Par Docks, and provide 5,500 homes along with doctors’ surgeries, jobs, schools and leisure facilities.
The pilot scheme could include car-charging points, houses with negative carbon emissions, 30 hectares of open space and even a cable car.
Mr Hodkin said the project was not as advanced as he would have liked but was awaiting progress on the St Austell, St Blazey and China Clay Area Regeneration Plan and Cornwall Core Strategy before it could move forward.
“In the meantime we continue to support other complementary initiatives such as Cornwall Council’s plans for the A391 re-alignment and the Technology Park on the West Carclaze site,” he added.
A Cornwall Council spokesman said it would have no effect on the project.
Source: http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Eco-development-jeopardy/story-16760874-detail/story.html
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