By Cllr Jim Frewin
It was interesting to see the article on the Hurst community fighting back against unwanted development. I wish them well in their fight.
I fully understand the concern about 34% increase in house numbers and the impact of an additional 540 more cars on the local roads. Shinfield and Arborfield are closer to 340% increase and tens of thousands of additional car journeys. Yet despite this a proposal to add well over 5,000 more house is being considered. 4,500 at Hall Farm plus a whole range of other sites all being considered as part of the Wokingham local plan update, a plan that is years overdue and has been subject to multiple administrations. This scale of development along the Loddon Valley is a risk to all of us.
So why should this interest the good people of Hurst or any other community, it is after all only Shinfield and Arborfield? Simply put flooding and traffic.
A local residents group Save Our Loddon Valley Environment (SOLVE) have recently been contacted by Basingstoke Councillors’ who are seriously concerned about ‘upstream’ impacts of such a level of development in the Loddon Valley.
If they are concerned then should the downstream communities and wards of Shinfield, Arborfield, Lower Earley, Hawkedon and Winnersh, Woodley, Loddon and Hurst, Charvil and Twyford, Remenham and Wargrave and Ruscombe, also be concerned?
All will be at risk of significant flooding should this development goes ahead.
Planning assessment of flood risks is based on ‘once in 100 years event’ criteria, yet there have been multiple such events over the past few years alone, so much for once in a 100 years.
Planners however ignore the evidence of recent events and simply quote their 100 year criteria.
Climate change is evidently upon us and will no doubt make such events even more frequent. So why are we seeking to build a huge number of houses in the flood plain alongside of a river that already floods?
Putting a few SUDS (underground water storage units) on the site will do prevent downstream or upstream flooding, so Hurst and others may need to find more funding this time to buy a large quantity of sandbags.
I understand the Hurst community concern over 540 more cars and the limited bus service. Shinfield and Arborfield have very limited service and more importantly virtually no capability to enable efficient bus services.
There is no opportunity for bus lanes, the rural road structure is not capable of enabling this. The traffic is already a significant issue with some journeys of less than three- to five-miles regularly taking over an hour. All roads from this proposal lead to M4 J11, Reading (The Sportsman Junction) or Lower Earley (Lower Earley Way) all of which are already over capacity and are known regular congestion points. If you thought it was difficult to get onto the M4 or into Reading along these routes now, then consider what it would be like if an addition 10,000 cars were on these roads?
If this should go ahead then at least Shinfield and Arborfield communities will get some of the developer’s money through CIL payments that could be used for sandbags, all the other communities at risk will need to pay for their own.
Could it be time for all of the flood risk communities to stand together and say no to river Loddon flood plain development before we all get flooded?
Cllr Jim Frewin is an independent councillor on Wokingham Borough Council for Shinfield South
