Way back in 1983 and again in 2003 the subject was mooted by me and in the interval by several others. With no concrete results! Except for the Cyber city (which is not really a new town at all) and numerous morcellements which, in my environmental manager’s view, is what should not be done! Lets review the topic once again.

Cities concentrate people, buildings, know-how, economic opportunities and trade, culture, and teach men community living. Yet many cities are choking, harbour extreme poverty and environmental degradation, are unsafe and unhealthy places to live in and bring up a family.

Most towns and cities in most countries of the world grew out of villages or settlements, as was the case for Port-Louis and Curepipe.

There are two exceptions to this gradual growth of cities:New capitals such as Canberra, Islamabad and above all Brasilia; new towns created out of countryside to provide more living space. Those new towns were all planned and designed to meet specific needs. They were built in strategic locations, not anywhere land happened to be available. They were the result of modern planning, with multiple services at the doorstep, human scale development, green and well-kept environments, and beautiful and aesthetic architecture - ATTRACTIVE AND PEACEFUL SELF-CONTAINED LIVING. There must be good distribution of residential areas, services, industry and recreation, which must be both well sorted out spatially and interlocked.

Having been involved in the original “Open University” venture, the new town I know best is Milton Keynes where the Open University of the UK is situated. Needless to say that the location of one great institution (in that case the Open University) in a new town gives it a tremendous boost and acts as a magnet to attract new residents and businesses. The same is true with Marne La Vallée near Paris, which has “Disneyland”. The new towns around London were mainly residential (e.g. Stevenage, Hemel Hampstead and Welwyn Garden City). The new towns of Lancashire however had as main purpose the relocation of industries away from Manchester and Liverpool (e.g. Runcorn and Warrington).

Two extraordinary new towns, which I visited recently, are worth mentioning here: Sandton and Port Grimaud. Sandton near Jo’burg in South Africa was built to serve two main purposes, shopping and security. Port Grimaud near St Tropez on the Côte d’Azur in France, is a little Venice, a town built on canals of seawater and bridges and which has a wonderful atmosphere.

<B>THE CASE OF MAURITIUS</B>

I state what follows categorically: the Illovo parcellisation of land and the numerous other morcellements for residential and other purposes, while laudable in themselves, are WRONG in that there is NO planned development of NEW TOWNS, only plots for individual buildings. IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO ACT.

WHAT TO DO? We need planners, architects, landscaping specialists, we need a vision for each new town, and above all the political will (which surely is there) to properly plan the Mauritius of tomorrow.

The NEW TOWN CONCEPT is totally different from a morcellement (“parcellisation”) as we know and practice it in Mauritius.

A NEW TOWN is likely to have these features, all harmoniously integrated, with architectural, landscaping and social coherence - a new name (e.g. Ebène Cyber City orVille Nouvelle de La Gaulette); residential clusters from low-cost housing to upper middle level clusters; all services, including shopping malls, eating places, markets, libraries, transport; postal, banking and advisory services; schools, police, medical facilities etc; road & city signs; road furniture; street lighting; mobility and transportation planning; places of worship, of leisure and sporting facilities; one or more major industry or institution, often on public land; a town centre or as in most old east European cities a TOWN SQUARE. There can be several town centres for example, one for Culture, one for Transport (gare routière), and one for Shopping and eating; the premises for local government (town hall, council, public participation systems, etc); integrated water, energy, waste, agricultural and industrial management; green spaces, gardens, trees.

In conclusion: In the context of new tax regime (such as the NRPT) and new investment strategies (such as IRS), Mauritius has to develop well-defined policies and strategies for land utilization. Land and probably fresh water are two genuinely scarce resources in small island states like ours. The thousands of hectares of Illovo and other agricultural lands must therefore be planned as NEW TOWNS, an old and well-tried concept with a new meaning. Additionally the old idea of re-classifying (lets say) Mahébourg, Triolet and Grand-Baie (and why not Souillac, Bel Air and Centre de Flacq) as towns must necessarily be accompanied by planning, architectural and governance measures similar to those mentioned for New Towns. The mere morcellement of land, Mauritian style, is inadequate as a means of providing quality living spaces for the population and FOR THE MODERN MAURITIUS OF THE 21st CENTURY WHICH WE ALL DREAM OF.

<B>Dr Michael ATCHIA</B> <I>[email protected]</I>