One man wearing a high viz jacket and using survey equipment has alarmed residents who fear proposals to build on a large field may be on the way.
The field bordered by Tape Lane and Lodge Road in Hurst has been the centre of planning battles in the past. A resident spoke of fears that more than 100 homes could be built on the site.
Donkeys, ponies and horses graze the area where the man was spotted at work this week.
Villager Lou Robinson said she had spoken to him and gathered he was doing a topographical survey of the land.
“We need to be on our toes and prepared for some sort of planning application. Just because we have fought this before and won does not mean we can be complacent now,” she said.
A villager says cables used to measure traffic volume connected with a planning application have recently been laid across Lodge Road. At the moment there is no application for the field.
Plans in 2008 to build stables and a barn for an equine treatment centre and plans for a mobile home on land at Lodge Road were refused planning permission by Wokingham Borough Council.
The applicants, Luff Farms, lost their appeal against the refusal. Nearly 100 people had written objecting to the plans. The Luff Group at Wokingham was asked for a comment on this week’s field activity but had not replied as we went to press.
Some time ago Wokingham Borough asked landowners and others to suggest areas in the borough for development up to 2036. The Tape Lane/Lodge Road field was suggested for housing, but the council did not include it in the draft plan put out for public consultation last year.
The borough council picked out sites for a total of just 15 homes in the village – in Whistley Green and near Hogmoor Lane.
However the draft plan is now being reviewed after a proposal to build 15,000 homes at Grazeley was stopped by the Atomic Weapons Establishment evacuation zone extension, Covid-19 and the council failing to get their bid for £252 million for infrastructure.
Wanting to identify sites for a fresh draft plan, the council is having master planning done for two areas (one south of Wokingham and the other between Sindlesham, Arborfield and Shinfield). They’re also reviewing other sites including brownfield areas (previously developed areas). It’s not yet known what sites will be in the new draft plan.
Wayne Smith, Wokingham Borough councillor for Hurst and chair of the parish council and village society, said: “Residents will have the opportunity to respond to the consultation (on the new draft plan) in the summer, as they did in February last year to the plan then.
“For any site when a planning application comes forward in Hurst, residents can have their say through the normal planning process.
“The parish council and the village society would be guided by residents’ views and the planning policies that exist for Hurst.”
