Garden village planned

PLANS FOR a garden village between Shinfield and Arborfield could be approved as part of the draft local plan update.

Some of the land includes Hall Farm, an active dairy farm and major European agricultural research establishment. It is owned by the University of Reading.

The institution has been liaising with Wokingham Borough Council as part of the draft local plan update – which is expected to be consulted on formally later this month.

The Loddon Valley Garden Village would include a range of new homes, community infrastructure and employment space.

The proposals are at a very early stage, however the University of Reading is keen to strengthen its Thames Valley Science Park.

Already home to a Rutherford Cancer Centre, Shinfield Studios, and a TV studio, the University hopes to create even more jobs in the area.

A spokesperson for the institution, said: “We want to ensure that we take a proactive, collaborative approach to this significant scheme, building on the values of positive engagement set down by the neighbouring Thames Valley Science Park and Cine Valley.

“This is a real opportunity to bring forward an original scheme for development that is employment-led, provides benefits for students, and links back to the academic centres of excellence at the University of Reading.”

The University hopes the development will “respect nature” and “reflect aspirations for a low carbon society”.

This could include enhancing habitats and biodiversity around the Loddon Valley.

“While this is still early in the process, we intend to continue an open process of consultation within and beyond the University,” the spokesperson added.

WOKINGHAM’S Liberal Democrats will be looking at the new draft local plan “very carefully” before making any in-depth comments and, like their Conservative counterparts, want to encourage residents to have their say.

On the proposal for 4,500 homes on Hall Farm, Lib Dem leader Cllr Clive Jones said: “It is called a garden village, the same description they had for Grazeley.

“There must be some sort of proposal like the one for Grazeley. We want to know what’s in it.”

He also wanted to see any developers behind the scheme paying for all infrastructure needed.

“We’re going to need a lot of new roads (to accommodate it),” he said. “There’s got to be a link to the M4, but we need to know who is paying for that – is it going to be Highways England, Wokingham Borough Council or the developer. Who is it?”

His deputy, Cllr Steven Conway, wanted to reassure residents that Wokingham did have a five-year land supply, which makes it harder for speculative developments to take place. This details the number of houses expected to be built per year over the five years.

The new draft local plan, which is due to go out to consultation, has come about after the rejected of a plan for garden town in Grazeley.

“We’re back where we were many, many months ago with a draft local plan. Basically, Grazeley derailed the process and has put it back a long time. We’re kind of where we were a couple of years ago.

“As far as I’m aware, we’re okay on the five-year land supply, we are not under threat, but the longer time goes on, the greater the risk gets.”

He also had concerns over the rate of housing that Wokingham borough is being forced to accept by the Government. The party feels it should be no more than 600 new homes a year, and that housing should be based on local need rather than projections of population growth.

“Numbers are still far too high,”

Cllr Conway said. “We’re now at real risk of approving building in areas which are, at the moment, not in flood risk areas but in a few years most definitely will be if current trends continue.

“All the projections looking ahead suggest we’re going to have an extension of floodplain.

“There is a serious issue here not just about the overall numbers and the impact on local infrastructure, and whether we can accommodate the numbers that have been talked about without it having a significant impact on flood risk in many areas.”

He added: “Every new build upstream on the Loddon Valley has a really significant impact downstream. We already have some really quite severe flood incidents in the borough and these will be made worse if ‘were actually continue down this route of building lots and lots more houses in areas that, in the future, are going to be a prime risk, either flooding or displacing significant amounts of water so that other areas flood.

“I’m very concerned about this.”

Cllr Conway felt that areas at risk could include Charvil and Ruscombe.

“This is going to be quite a serious problem in the lifetime of the local plan and I’m very concerned we’re not really addressing it. It seems as though the council is blindly proceeding without much reference to the very likely risk of much greater flooding in the future, if all this housing is approved and built.”

The Lib Dems did want to highlight the local plan’s desire to protect some parts of the borough.

“The good thing the local plan is doing is saying we need to designate over 70 areas as green space,” said

Cllr Jones. “That is really good news because it gives those precious green spaces some protection.”