Some weeks ago, my Conservative colleague Cllr Wayne Smith warned that the failure of Wokingham’s Lib Dem/Labour/Independent administration to get on with the Local Plan risked opening up our communities to unwanted development.
Now, unfortunately, this prediction has come to pass.
A developer put in an application to build 32 houses on a rural site off Nine Mile Ride in Finchampstead. Put simply, this site is completely unsuitable.
Nine Mile Ride is already a busy road, and the density of new houses is completely out of keeping with surrounding neighbourhoods. Construction would also require cutting a swathe through a wooded area with abundant wildlife.
The local community mounted a vocal objection, demonstrating why these were the wrong houses in the wrong place. Despite these valid concerns, the Planning Inspector sided with the developer, and gave permission for these houses on appeal.
What reason did the Inspector give? The absence of a five-year land supply for development.
The National Planning Policy Framework requires local authorities to outline a five-year supply of specific sites to meet housing needs. Wokingham Borough now no longer has a five-year land supply, making the whole Borough increasingly vulnerable to developers.
And responsibility for this lies at the door of the Lib Dem-led administration that refuses to get on with developing a plan for new housing.
It’s not as though the Lib Dems and their coalition partners weren’t warned that this would happen.
Not only have we been calling for action to prevent unsustainable development, and successfully putting pressure on the government to reduce our development targets, but the Council’s own officers said back in October that without a five-year land supply an increase in appeals for speculative housing development was expected.
The Lib Dems, Labour and Independents made promises at the local elections last May to stop development in communities across the Borough – knowing full-well that they wouldn’t be able to do so.
That’s why they’ve thrown out the progress of the previous Conservative administration on the Local Plan, but refuse to actually develop a Plan of their own. The Liberal Democrats have achieved nothing.
When we were in power, and since we’ve been in Opposition, we Conservatives have repeatedly set out why the Council needs to plan for new homes.
With a Local Plan, you are in charge – you get a say on where development will go for years to come.
Without it, local people become bystanders, watching helplessly as developers ride roughshod over the desires of our communities.
Development by appeal is set to become the norm unless the Lib Dems and their coalition partners step up and show some leadership.
Under the Conservatives, only two appeals were won by developers over the last four years.
In just over six months, the Lib Dems have unleashed a wave of losses by the Council that puts the Borough at risk.
An appeal in Hurst was lost in September and a similar application to Nine Mile Ride has been submitted for 68 houses on Barkham Ride which, despite its unsuitability, will probably go through on appeal because there is no five-year land supply.
The Lib Dems have clearly broken their election promise. By contrast, the Conservative Group has been open and honest about what we could achieve in power, and what is just not realistic.
We’ll continue to make a stand for the communities across this Borough, but we need you to also make your voice heard.
Send the message loud and clear to the Lib Dem leadership and their Labour and Independent partners: “be responsible, get on with the job you were sent there to do, and put together a Local Plan”.
Cllr Peter Harper is a Conservative councillor for Finchampsted North on Wokingham Borough Council
