MORE details of how a planned 5,000-home eco -settlement on the outski-rts of Bicester will take shape have emerged.

High on the agenda is money to pay for land for a desperately needed cemetery, a fast link to Bicester North Station and sports facilities.

According to a report, written as part of Cherwell District Council’s bid for a share of Government cash to pay for the town, all buildings at the 850-acre site would be self-sustaining, using renewable energy for their power needs, and construction materials could include recycled bottles.

It is envisaged that electric vehicles would make deliveries and transport residents.

Community gardens and allotments would be created to encourage local food production and a biomass plant and an anaerobic digester built to process waste and produce heat and hot water.

To meet the ideals of an eco town, targets have been set to reduce car journeys from the site by at least 50 per cent.

Residents would be encouraged to use their cars less or not at all, and instead walk, cycle, use car share schemes, or public transport.

The development would also be designed with fewer roads and half the car parking provision usually proposed for new estates in urban areas.

Michael Gibbard, council executive member for planning and housing, said it had a master plan for the development and that Section 106 money, cash paid by developers, would fund schools and community schemes.

He said: “We are starting a project and we have the benefit of a clean sheet.

“What normally happens to a lot of developments is a developer comes along and proposes a site that doesn’t always fit to needs.”

Aside from planning what it might do with the Section 106 money, Cherwell plans to spend a £9.7m Government start-up grant to launch a host of projects related to the development.

Mr Gibbard confirmed it had commissioned a £100,000 transport study of the town, which included the viability of a monorail or similar fast link from the settlement to Bicester North station.

The council is also looking at initiatives to reduce the amount of energy used by the town, as well as the creation of new public space.

Consortium P3Eco, which is overseeing the project, has secured enough land to build the first 1,000 homes of the 5,000-home development.

This includes part of Home Farm, Caversfield, farmland belonging to the Malin family off Lords Lane and Banbury Road, and a site owned by Thames Valley Police Authority, off Howes Lane.

An £110,000 exhibition house showing the design of an eco house is due to be installed in Garth Park, while a planning application is due to be submitted for a 200-home demonstration site by the end of the year.

The long-term plan is for the first 3,000 houses to be built by 2026.