News

Benefits highlighted for 650 homes plans at Buckhurst Farm

By Victoria Smith
April 04, 2012

A new primary school, country park, allotments, and dementia care facilities could be built in Wokingham under plans for 650 homes due to be debated tonight.

The proposal for Buckhurst Farm in London Road is recommended for approval by Wokingham Borough Council’s planning committee, following two years of negotiations between planning officers and developer David Wilson Homes.

If it wins approval to build the housing, the developer will be asked to pay around £30,000 per home, or £19.5 million, on improving local roads, schools and facilities.

The project would also create new jobs locally, with a commitment by David Wilson Homes to offer five-year apprenticeship and graduate trainee roles, as well as employ local businesses for construction.

The plan represents a first for the borough, as it is the only proposal to build large-scale housing on land earmarked for development by the council to win support from planning officers.

The council is fighting planning applications for land to the north of Wokingham town and land to the south of the M4 near Three Mile Cross, as they do not conform to the council’s vision for the proposed mini-towns.

The 650 homes will be the first phase in a 2,500 home development, which forms part of the council’s Core Strategy vision for future development.

Key features of the plan include:

- A free car club for residents for the first three years. The scheme will involve a partnership with a car hire firm, which will allow residents to hire a car for periods as short as one hour.

The developer hopes this will mean fewer residents need a car.

- A country park featuring a community orchard and allotment.

- A neighbourhood centre.

- A new primary school and multi-use games are with playing fields.

- A new southern distributor road, featuring a bridge over the railway line, railway footbridges and improvements to level crossings at Waterloo Road and Easthampstead Road.

- Three new public art features.

The mini-town is one of four that will be built in the borough to meet the 13,000 homes target the council has set by 2026.

Councillor Angus Ross, executive member for strategic highways, said the plan was more acceptable to the council than other mini-town proposals on the table because it is a complete picture, with full blueprints for roads and other essential elements of the estate.

Cllr Ross said: "There is an element of working together from all the consortia involved which is what we have been wanting in all four development locations right from the time it was agreed in 2009."

The plans will be discussed at 7pm at Shute End.

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Most recent user comments 3 of 3

Once again it seems WDC are presiding over another unbelievable proposal. The distributor road in the Buckhurst Farm proposal is planned to be built from the Tesco Roundabout in Finchampstead Road to London Road, opposite Loch Fynne, through the new estate with narrow roads, schools et al over a railway bridge. We can all now envisage that large lorries along with all major road traffic is going to cause chaos. It would be far more sensible to build the new road from Tesco following the railway track and eventually joining the road which leads to the new roundabout at Jennetts Park which links up with the A329M. No need for a very expensive railway bridge and a major road ending up in a housing estate. Another great idea from A Ross!

Stig2, Wokingham
05/04/2012 at 16:34

For 50 years this land has been protected by the comments and objections from the local community, this proposal itself had hundreds of local objections, they were not mentioned in the meeting of last night or taking into consideration during the "debate" before the final vote.

This is a say day for history of Wokingham we loose the last of the green space around our town.

Woky Local, Wokingham
05/04/2012 at 07:50

The country park is in the wrong place. This area is the sole remaining area within walking distance of this end of Wokingham where one can let a dog run free. The proposed country park will be a car journey for the elderly.

This area is just about the sole remaining piece of green belt between Wokingham and Bracknell. It was only a few years ago regarded as sacrosanct by the council for that reason with proposals for superstores, housing estates and a foorball ground being rejected. It should not be built on.