By Cllr Charles Margetts
One of the main issues which effected the whole borough in May’s local elections was development – the level of development is set by the Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) Local Plan. Central government gives Wokingham borough council an annual housing target to achieve. The housing target is 797 houses per annum – this is judged on a five year basis.
The WBC local plan defines where development should take place.
WBC gets applications for areas not allocated for development. Examples are the planning applications for housing at Sandmartins, Woodcray and 6 Johnson Drive. WBC refuses applications which do not comply with its plan. It is common for developers to appeal WBC refusals to the planning inspector in Bristol.
WBC currently wins around 80% of planning appeals because it has a local plan and can show five-year housing supply. In comparable local authorities where they cannot prove five-year land supply and / or have no plan the success at appeal is as low as 40%.
Earlier this year, WBC launched a public consultation on a list of sites for a new local plan. The draft plan (which would run up to 2038) proposed allocating most of the housing to meet the target at Hall Farm near Shinfield. Coalition candidates strongly opposed the inclusion of Hall Farm (2,500 houses), the land next to the southern distributor road (800 houses), Winnersh Farm (287 houses), Rooks Nest (240 houses) and Toutley Depot (120 houses).
In total, Liberal Democrat councillors promised to take over 3,400 houses out of the local plan – however offered no suggestions where these houses should go.
They gave local residents the impression you could say no to every local development scheme without explaining these houses have to be located somewhere else for Wokingham to have a local plan
A major criticism from Liberal councillors and Cllr Gary Cowan in the local elections was that the draft local plan had been prepared by Cllr Wayne Smith who is the Conservative member for Hurst. Cllr Cowan wrote frequently to Wokingham Today referring to Wayne Smith as ‘Wayne no houses in Hurst Smith’. The new councillor responsible for the local plan is Cllr Lindsay Ferris (Twyford). The local plan will be directed by a councillor from the north of the borough – Cllr Cowan should therefore refer to his coalition partner as ‘Lindsay no houses in Twyford Ferris’ if he is to be fair and consistent.
To protect Wokingham Borough it is vital WBC produces a local plan. A failure to do this would lead the area open to development of unsustainable sites as it would be much more difficult for WBC to defend hostile applications at appeal. There is also a risk, as has happened with South Oxfordshire council, that the government will take away the council’s powers to determine planning applications if no plan is in place
The Liberal-led coalition has already indicated it plans to complete the local plan which is welcome news. They have already stated that Hall Farm will come out the plan and Twyford will not be developed, despite being the most sustainable area for development in Wokingham borough. They have to then decide whether to fulfil their election promises and remove the long list of sites they opposed in the May 22 elections.
If they do this they then have to find a new major development site in the south of the borough – the obvious candidates would be Ashridge Farm or Barkham Grange if they refuse to build in Twyford. Whatever is decided residents across the south of Wokingham – Wokingham Without, Finchampstead, Barkham, Aborfield and Shinfield – should be very fearful as it is clear the Liberal Democrat coalition intends to place a major amount of new housing in the south of the borough due to its decisions not to develop Twyford and to walk away from Hall Farm.
The Lib Dem-led coalition are about to find out that leading the council involves tough decisions – they made a lot of commitments to remove many sites from the local plan in May. If they wish to keep these promises there will have to be a major housing development in the south of Wokingham for WBC to have a local plan which would then protect the remainder of the borough.
Cllr Jones has been quick to talk about how he has written a letter to Michael Gove and met John Redwood. His predecessor, Cllr John Halsall, wrote to Michael Gove many times and had many meetings with John Redwood.
Cllr Jones should be honest with the people of Wokingham over housing rather than this empty theatre. He and his party made many promises to the people of Wokingham on housing in May 22. He now has to decide where the housing he and his fellow councillors promised to take out of the local plan should be located – residents in the south of the borough should be very watchful.
Cllr Charles Margetts is the Conservative ward member for Finchampstead North
