A MASTERPLAN to build 11,000 homes in Wokingham over the next 15 years has been approved by Wokingham Borough councillors, despite a last-minute attempt from Conservatives to cut out a third of the homes planned.
The Wokingham Local Plan sets out how housing will be delivered in the borough, identifying the most appropriate areas for development. It contains a huge 11,000 number of homes to be built across Wokingham by 2040.
The most controversial of these is a chunk of 3,900 homes on Hall Farm, known as the Loddon Valley Village – which Conservative members attempted to remove from the plan in a last-minute, surprise amendment.
Introducing the motion at a Wokingham Borough Council full council meeting on Thursday, September 19, councillor Joseph Barley said the plan was ‘illogical, missing evidence and disproportionate’.
The member for Arborfield and Barkham, where two of the major developments are being proposed, said: “Residents like myself are in the position where I have to go to Finchampstead for the doctor, Yateley for the supermarket, Wokingham for a meal, and Winnersh for work.
“There is a clear trend of travel outside the ward in order to access essential services[…] the strain on services and surrounding local communities will be too great to bear.”
‘Save Hall Farm’ campaigners held a small protest outside the council office building before the meeting.
Leader of the Labour group, Councillor Rachel Burgess criticised the amendment, claiming ‘if the Tories were serious about this you would’ve talked to us’, and that ‘it was not a game’.
Wokingham Borough Council leader Stephen Conway, also in charge of the local plan, claimed the Conservatives ‘seemed to be displaying a wish to distance themselves from their own local plan’.
The Liberal Democrats inherited a draft from the Conservatives in 2022, when taking control of the council. Leaders have argued that the Conservatives allocated ‘the vast majority of the sites’ – including Hall Farm.
But the Conservatives have taken issue with the party’s ‘hypocrisy’, after members of the Liberal Democrats including MP Clive Jones originally opposed the plan.
After the amendment fell, two Labour councillors raised issue with the amount being built in Shinfield, and said they could not support the plan.
In a final address, councillor Conway urged members to ‘do right by the borough’ and approve the plan which would see an end to ‘inappropriate, speculative and unplanned development’.
This was particularly important given the climate of higher housing targets imposed on the borough, he argued.
Under new figures, Wokingham Borough Council must build 1,308 more houses per year. But if the local plan goes ahead, the authority could have some ‘breathing space’ to implement these higher levels later, rather than straight away.
After lengthy deliberations the local plan was passed, with 29 voting for, 18 against and two abstentions from Labour.
