News
The Prince of Wales visits Upton, Northampton
6th December 2007
The Prince of Wales showed senior civil servants around an urban extension of Northampton today and met young people at a local school and college.
Upton, which is an urban extension of Northampton, was part-designed by The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment.
The Prince led a group of six of the Government's top Permanent Secretaries around the new housing development.
Upton is an eight-year project which aims to create a truly sustainable community that demonstrates best practice in sustainable urban growth.
The project partners include English Partnerships, Northampton Borough Council, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment and a consultants’ team led by EDAW.
Upton will eventually have 1020 of the most environmentally friendly homes in the country. It will also have shops, a nursery, medical centre and other community facilities nearby so that residents can make basic journeys without having to use a car.
The Prince visited the primary school and was greeted outside by young pupils waving Union Flags. Inside, His Royal Highness chatted to a 10-year-old pupil about French lessons and asked: "Can you speak a bit of French?"
"Bonjour, je m'appelle William," answered the pupil.
When The Prince was asked by headteacher Helen Hollwey to respond in kind, he replied: "Ce n'est pas possible."
Many of the children have just a five-minute walk to and from school.
The Prince later visited Andy and Deborah Grieve at their award-winning eco home in Upton.
Their three-storey, four bed house is built in a traditional style but won awards for its environmental standards.
The house carries photovoltaic solar cells which provide a quarter of the house's power needs. Solar water heating provides 70 per cent of hot water and rainwater harvesting technology reduces water use by more than 55 per cent.
Commenting on the new technology, The Prince said the couple were lucky to benefit from proven techniques.
He joked: "You've got it down to a fine art because the first time we tried to use rainwater recycling the poor lady's house was flooded!"
And IT worker Andy said his utility bills had more than halved since moving from a three-bed semi in Milton Keynes last year.
Later The Prince visited the town's Fishmarket art gallery to meet youngsters who have set up their own businesses after taking part in schemes organised by The Prince's Trust.