A new access for maintenance vehicles is set for a nature park in Bracknell despite fears being raised over safety.
The Blue Mountain development is a northern extension of the town in Binfield, built on a former golf course, made up of around 400 homes, a primary and a secondary school.
A nature park has also been created for the amenity of neighbours and to mitigate the impact of the development to the surrounding area. This is what’s called a suitable alternative natural greenspace (SANG).
But neighbours raised fears about a new access for maintenance vehicles being created into the nature park through Calcot Close.
Irene Chen, who lives there, argued regular maintenance traffic would disturb residents and be dangerous for pedestrians walking in the area.
However, these concerns were rebuffed by Bracknell Forest Council planning officer Margaret McEvit.
Her report states: “The introduction of the maintenance access will have a minimal impact on nearby residents in Calcot Close.
“The access will be used infrequently and the number of vehicle movements are not considered likely to significantly affect the amenities of residents by the additional use of this existing road.”
But because six people objected to the project, a decision had to be made by the council’s planning committee.
Councillor Sheila Collings (Green, Binfield North and Warfield West) said: “I think it’s disappointing that it’s been necessary to provide this um additional vehicle access point now, and that it wasn’t originally identified within the original application, presumably, nobody thought about it properly.
“I’m pleased to see a condition has been added requiring details of the types of vehicles which will access the site.
“Would it be possible to ask for likely frequencies?”
Officer McEvit replied: “It’s difficult to set an absolute number because, of course, in a good year you may just be cutting the grass and the rangers coming to inspect in smaller vehicles.
“In a year where there’s been a storm incident or you need some maintenance work it could be more frequent and initially it could be more frequent because the SANG has not been maintained to a good standard. So there will be more remediation works initially.”
The access will be formed using ‘grasscrete’ -concrete the grass can grow through- so it will be visually similar to the rest of the SANG.
The plan also sought retrospective permission for a larger drainage basin for water.
Officer McEvit clarified that deepening of the basin had already been done in 2020, and apologised for it taking so long to be brought to councillors.
Cllr Tricia Brown (Labour, Priestwood & Garth), chair of the committee, quipped: “We catch up in the end!
“It’s regrettable, I suppose, that it has taken quite so long, but we have it now!”
The maintenance access to the SANG at Calcot Close was unanimously approved by the committee on August 14.
