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Unfortunately, many myths about planning, and especially Wokingham’s new local plan, are being propagated at present for party political purposes.
It might therefore be helpful if I set out the true situation so that debate can be honest and realistic and recognize the borough council’s limited room for manoeuvre.
Targets for new housing are set by national government, not locally.
Governments require councils to have local plans in place to identify how they intend to accommodate their housing allocation. If they have no local plan, developers are free to apply to build wherever they want, and councils have little power to stop them. That speculative, unplanned development, furthermore, usually comes with far less infrastructure to mitigate its impact than development delivered through a local plan.
Wokingham’s emerging local plan, approved by a clear majority of councillors last September, and soon to be submitted to a government inspector for examination before formal adoption, is the product of cross-party efforts over many years.
The current Liberal Democrat administration at Wokingham inherited a draft local plan drawn up under the previous Conservative administration.
That draft plan is very similar in terms of site identification to the final version approved by councillors in September, though the final version improves on the draft, with new policies on Affordable Housing and energy-efficient new homes.
Hall Farm was included in the draft local plan by the Conservatives.
When the Liberal Democrats took control of the council in 2022, they reviewed the draft plan to see whether Hall Farm could safely be removed.
After exhaustive technical appraisals of Hall Farm and alternative major development sites, the new administration concluded that Hall Farm was indeed the most suitable of the possible major sites proposed to the council by landowners. In terms of compliance with planning policies, local and national, and deliverability within the plan period, it was demonstrably better than the other possible options.
We followed the technical evidence, the only sound basis on which to form a local plan that will pass the test of the inspector’s examination. Our Conservative predecessors had done the same when they drew up their draft plan, with Hall Farm as its major development location.
Given the weight of technical evidence supporting Hall Farm, Lindsay Ferris, the new administration’s lead councillor for planning, led negotiations with the landowners and developers to produce a more acceptable scheme than the one included in the draft plan.
The number of new dwellings at Hall Farm was reduced by more than 500, but with the vital infrastructure still agreed, including flood protection measures, new schools, 40% Affordable Housing, eco-friendly homes, community facilities, highways improvements, public transport and active travel opportunities, and a new country park.
Development is a very divisive issue, often pitting existing homeowners against those who want a place of their own. I understand why existing residents may be reluctant to see new development in their vicinity, but we should not forget that many people in our area, including existing residents’ children and grandchildren, need somewhere they can call home. We have an obligation to address their needs as well as mitigate the harms caused by development.
Working within a highly constrained system, we have sought to produce the best outcome for the borough, balancing the interests of existing householders and aspiring householders. Once the new local plan is adopted, we will all benefit from the protection it provides against inappropriate, unplanned, speculative development.
