THE COUNCIL has won a planning appeal meaning that 118 homes will not be built.
Welbeck Strategic Land II LLP had wanted to construct the homes and create a greenspace, known as a SANG, on land north of Nine Mile Ride in Finchampstead.
The hearing was held in early February and saw Government inspectors visit the proposed site.
The judgment, confirming that the council’s case had been successful, was released earlier this month.
Wellback had said that half of the development, close to Park Lane, would have been affordable housing, and 5% would have been for self-build or custom-build plots. It would have been between Finchampstead North and the Arborfield Garrison Strategic Development Location (SDL).
Wokingham Borough Council had rejected the scheme for 10 reasons, including ecology and biodiversity and the absence of a legal agreement relating to local employment skills.
In her report, inspector Christina Downes said felt that the proposal would not have had any adverse effect on the gap between Finchampstead and the SDL.
She also raised concerns over the woodland, which was originally part of the Royal Forest, saying that 8% of the trees could be lost but given the lack of management of the area, which is privately owned, this could have “qualitative benefits”.
“I observed at my site visits that the quality of some parts of the woodland on the northern part of the site was in poor condition … I noted a sense of neglect and this has arisen from a lack of proper management,” she noted.
And while the homes would be built around the remaining trees, “in my opinion it would essentially be a suburban estate of considerably higher density than its surroundings,” Ms Downes said.
In making her decision, Ms Downes noted that the council believed that it had given approval for enough homes for 6.39 years – it only needs to demonstrate a five-year land supply. However, Wellback argued that the council only had a 4.75 year supply.
Ms Downes said: “The evidence suggests that the Council has often been overly optimistic with its forecasting and that performance has consistently lagged behind prediction”, while also saying that it had been putting more rigorous processes in place to ensure “improved accuracy” with the numbers.
She also noted: “The market can only absorb a certain amount of new housing and developers are unlikely to build houses if they think they will be standing empty for a long period of time. This is clearly an issue that is very dependent on the buoyancy of the local housing market but also the number of outlets competing for the same slice of the market.
“Since the inquiry the world has been afflicted with the Coronavirus pandemic and this is likely to result in economic repercussions at least in the short-term.”
Ms Downes concluded that the council can demonstrate a 5.2 year supply of “deliverable sites” once the anticipated economic downturn caused by coronavirus is taken into account.
And it was felt that the development would rely on cars for most journeys and this outweighed some of the benefits of the scheme.
Leader of Wokingham Borough Council, Cllr John Halsall said: “We’re delighted. We fought appeal with the best team available – a really good team of officers and the QC, Sasha White, is absolutely stunning.
“I hope the victory is the first of many. It is excellent news for those residents, for the borough council, for our planning policies.
“Hopefully others will think twice about trying to appeal.”
