News

Phase one of a mini-town north of Wokingham has been approved by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles
advertisement

Green light for Wokingham mini-town

July 19, 2012

Phase one of a mini-town north of Wokingham has been approved by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, overruling a borough council decision last year.

Wokingham Borough Council now has until the end of next month to decide whether it is worth launching a costly judicial review in the High Court.

The site in Warren House Lane has been approved to house a 274-home development, the start of a 1,500-home mini-town.

The north Wokingham site is one of four areas across the borough earmarked by the council to take thousands of new homes by 2026.

Developer Crest Nicholson had twice sent proposals to council planners and launched an appeal last year following the council’s failure to determine the application.

Inspector Wendy Burdon held a public inquiry in November, and consent has now been granted on appeal by the Secretary of State.

Councillor Keith Baker, executive member for highways and planning, said: “We are not overly happy with the decision. The Secretary of State’s ruling has both good and bad things in it. We are looking to see if there are grounds for a judicial review which would be very costly but there are some key principles here.”

The council previously criticised Crest Nicholson’s plans for being piecemeal and premature, failing to meet high standards of design and a lack affordable housing.

John Terry, managing director of Crest Nicholson Communities, said: “This site is of key strategic importance for the region and it is a fantastic endorsement and testament to the quality of the proposals that Crest Nicholson should be the first housebuilder to have been granted planning consent in one of the primary designated expansion areas for the growth of Wokingham.”

Kentwood Farm is split into three sites and the council has been in discussion with three developers.

Cllr Baker said: “We had been working to get a legally binding infrastructure over the whole site, since with it we wouldn’t need to work individually with the developers but together as a team to go from one end to the other. The Secretary of State does not see the need for it to be legally binding however.”

The Secretary of State’s decision letter said he “had regard to the council’s concern that, without a binding commitment there is a risk that supporting infrastructure, services and facilities across the North West Strategic Development Location (SDL) as a whole would not be properly planned and delivered on a comprehensive basis”.

He added that “given the absence of a five year land supply... the Secretary of State shares the inspector’s view that the need for a start to the development of the SDLs is a matter of considerable weight”.

The Secretary of State concluded “at the present time, Wokingham’s policies for the supply of housing are not up-to-date”.

Cllr Baker said: “We believe we had made a good argument that we would meet the supply by 2026. Because of the recession our developers are not doing as much as they want to do and so we are falling behind. We are not significantly behind though and we will catch up.”

Phase one of the mini-town will include the new homes, a community centre, primary school and recreational facilities.

| Submit Comments | View Comments (10)

« Previous Story | Next Story »

Most recent user comments 10 of 10

Stig2 - clearly you misunderstand the planning process - there are no contracts in place relating to individual planning applications as that is not possible.

For each of the 4 SDL's there are several developers involved in consortia. Each individual developer will contribute to a portion of the required infrastructure. By trying to work with the consortia and not individual developers one at a time the council was trying to make sure the complete infrastructure would be built. I am sure you would be the first to attack officers and councillors if one part of a key road was never funded and therefore not built. By trying to make this legally binding on the consortia we have a form of guarantee. By relying on the good will of developrs to follow through on their verbal commitment is a high risk strategy.

A classic example of this is primary school education. With this development, when fully built, there is going to be demand for a new primary school. Each of the developers within the consortia were expected to contribute funds to part fund such a new school in the area of the SDL. The appeal inspector and secretary of state overturned that approach and said that this developer does not need to provide that funding because All Saints Primary School has the capacity. So now the next developer will probably use a similar arguement that they do not need to provide funds for a new primary school. The risk is that after all applications approved we will still have to provide that primary school and it will have to be funded by council and not the developers!

Smiffy - I totally disagree with you that just because it is an approved development location that we should simply cave in to developers and let them do whatever they want to. Infrastructure provision is going to be essential when building such large developments and therefore we have to do everything possible to make sure that all indfrastructure is provided and funded by the developers.

Cllr Keith Baker
21/07/2012 at 10:50

Cllr Keith Baker
21/07/2012 at 10:48

For what it's worth...

http://www.change.org/petitions/force-wokingham-borough-council-to-hold-a-public-referendum-on-the-core-strategy-and-housing-plans

nothing more to add about WBC and green space, this council will leave a legacy behind then they are gone! not a good one I would like to add.

Local Woky, Wokingham
19/07/2012 at 23:26

With Jennetts Park and soon to be Buckhurst Park, indeed Wokingham and Bracknell will be close to becoming one...

alex_f, Wokingham
19/07/2012 at 17:03

Unfortunately, with all the towns in the area expanding their boundaries and concreting over the remaining countryside it won’t be long before Reading, Wokingham and Bracknell become one big continuous urban area and when it in turn joins up with the Aldershot urban area we’ll have a mega city of villages to rival London. Remember, that’s how London was formed by suburbs and villages merging into one another.

Mark Savill, Wokingham
19/07/2012 at 15:59

I have absolutely NO faith in WBC ...

That is all ......

Peter Turner
19/07/2012 at 14:37

We have just had a hosepipe ban due to a shortage of water resources in the area. What is being done to supply water to these new houses.

The 2011 census showed that the population of Wokingham only increased by 2.5% over the previous ten years. Why are these houses needed? We seem to be building on green space around Wokingham not to satisfy the needs of existing residents but to encourage more immigrants. The resources, including water, schools, road space etc. do not exist to support immigrants from other areas of the UK.

PoneRana, Wokingham
19/07/2012 at 11:28

I don't understand. The site had been earmarked for development, yet when a developer wants to develop there WBC reject the idea. Knowing WBC logic they are actually looking to have a mass building program in 2025 to meet the 2026 requirements!

It will be interesting if this does go to a judicial review as it appears that this issue is mostly down to typical WBC stubborness. I wonder what the difference in cost between a judicial review and a free green waste scheme for residents would be?

Smiffy, Reading
19/07/2012 at 11:12

Cllr Baker....If there are contracts in place then why was this development stalled by WBC? Why did you want it to be legally binding. Surely the contracts are sufficient in the same way as they are for other developments. What a waste of time and money. Why did you want the community mitigation package to be directed to Matthewsgreen rather than the communities directly and immediately impacted by the development of East and West Kentwood Farm as proposed by Crest Nicholson. Was WBC just trying to pull a fast one here. It seems that Crest Nicholson got it right and WBC did not.