Picture of the week

During the summer, three young foxes adopted us. In the early evening in broad daylight they played in the garden and behaved like mischievous children, trying hard to break into a netted  strawberry bed, digging holes and carrying off gardening gloves we had left handy. This fox was the boldest and one evening sat at the top of the garden calmly watching us. She still comes to visit mid evening to see if there is anything to eat and peers at us through the patio doors.

Ray H Little, Finchampstead

We welcome your pictures for this slot. Send your images to letters@wokinghampaper.co.uk and we’ll do the rest

Use the boxes to stop the bags blowing away

As Wokingham Borough Council announces the inception, at some stage in 2021, of new recycling arrangements with the provision of two plastic “hessian” bags, should we assume that the next phase of this, prior to commencement, would be for Wokingham Borough Council to issue each household with some form of receptacle in which the bags once emptied by the refuse crews can be placed.

Or are we to be faced with the same prospect as with the erstwhile green garden recycling bags which on breezy or windy days could often be found loose and blowing along the road like tumbleweed? 

Unless, of course, the crews will politely hand back each households’ bags once emptied.

An possibility could perhaps be to use the then redundant black plastic boxes currently used in which to place the empty bags following collection of recycling.

This at least would stop them “escaping” before having the opportunity to retrieve them from
the pavement or indeed the road.

Simon Jackson, Wokingham

Residents are write

I am disappointed to see that Your Letters seems to have descended into council members ‘having a moan’ at each other or each others parties.  They are over-long and consist of issues best discussed at council meetings.

This week is no different, and apart from a resident’s letter about Commons Road (a valid point that needs urgently sorting), and a delightful picture from ‘Cally’, we are subjected to five long letters from council members.

We already have a page dedicated to Council News on page 14.  Where are the letters from residents?

The page is called Your Letters after all.

Jan Frances, Wokingham

Editor writes – We welcome more contributions from readers

Councillors on housing

Labour councillors on the  town and borough councils within the Wokingham borough area have submitted this response to the Tory government’s planning consultation.

This is a collective response by Labour Town and Borough Councillors within the Wokingham Borough area to the Government’s white paper “Planning for the Future” published in August 2020, setting out potential new planning rules. We do recognise that planning regulations need an overhaul.

The proposals in the white paper will reduce the ability of local people to influence the scope, scale and location of developments in their area. In an area like ours, the ability to influence development is already severely curtailed by the combination of high housing supply requirements and the pro-development skew of the National Planning Policy Framework. 

The division of our borough into areas of growth, regeneration and conservation will remove what little protection exists for our green spaces outside of designated Greenbelt. In addition, the continual conversion of unsuitable former offices to residential space will increase the quantity of unsuitable homes in unsuitable areas.

A converted office block on an industrial estate is no place to raise a family.

The reference to the quality of the design of new houses and the adaptation of designs that blend with local tradition is, however, to be welcomed.

Accompanying the main white paper and issued at the same time is the document Changes to the Current Planning System. This covers many issues of the planning process, including the number of homes that Wokingham Borough would be compelled to accommodate in the future. In past years Wokingham Borough has seen the building of a flood of new homes commensurate with the Five Year Land Supply requirement; in spite of developers, in some instances, dragging their feet in commencing house building after planning permission has been granted.

The planned current Strategic Development Locations ensure that the high level of building will continue for the foreseeable future. This volume of building has reduced the availability of green spaces and put severe stress on the local infrastructure, particularly roads.

Recent changes to central government funding of infrastructure on planned new settlements such as Grazeley mean that Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) will not be able to build the infrastructure required for such a massive development. Furthermore, the changes to the Community Infrastructure Levy and other changes to funding and regulations mean that even fewer social homes will be built in future.

This continued local development is excessive and Wokingham Borough Council have been ignored in the past when approaching the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government to request that the required housing numbers be reduced.

In 2018, the consultation for the new local plan showed the four top local issues identified by residents were all related to aspects of over development.

In 2019 WBC spent more than £50,000 on another survey just so local Conservatives could demonstrate they were opposed to the housing numbers. Consider the horror therefore that the number of homes to be built in Wokingham per annum required by the new proposed formula is more than double. This is wholly unacceptable as it would mean that two towns the size of Wokingham town would have to be built every 15 years. This is not a viable proposition.

 We do understand that this commitment to build more homes in areas like ours was in the Conservative manifesto presented at the General Election: (“This will see us build at least a million more homes, of all tenures, over the next Parliament – in the areas that really need them. And we will make the planning system simpler…”, p31)

We do think there are other ways to do it. Fundamentally, the Thames Valley is an economic hotspot that draws in jobs and people from all over the country. Until there is a rebalancing of the UK economy to a more equitable distribution of prosperity around the country, there will be a continued high demand for housing in this area – and the housing will simply be too expensive for most people to buy or rent.

 We strongly request that the Secretary of State for Housing Communities & Local Government –

(1)  Withdraws in their entirety the proposals in the current white paper

(2)  Develops a new white paper, in consultation with the Local Government Association

(3)  Empowers local authorities to build more social rent council housing (WBC has started just ten in ten years)

(4)    Adopts a new methodology for calculating Local Housing Need that has a greatly reduced requirement for Wokingham Borough so the current horrendous proposed numbers are not inflicted on the residents of Wokingham Borough

(5)  Introduces a ‘use it or lose it’ requirement on developers who obtain planning permission

(6)  Gives more control to Local Authorities to restrict unwanted development – via their Local Plan process AND via the powers of Planning Committees

(7)  Works with government colleagues to rebalance the geographic inequalities in the UK economy which are driving the extremely high demand in the Thames Valley.

Cllr Nada Al-sanjari, Bulmershe ward, Woodley Town Council

Cllr Shirley Boyt, Bulmershe and Whitegates ward, Wokingham Borough Council

Cllr Rachel Burgess, Norreys ward, Wokingham Borough Council

Cllr Andy Croy, Bulmershe and Whitegates ward, Wokingham Borough Council

Cllr Carl Doran, Bulmershe and Whitegates ward, Wokingham Borough Council

Cllr Nick Fox, Norreys West ward, Wokingham Town Council

Cllr Tim Lloyd, Evendons West ward, Wokingham Town Council

Cllr Sheena Matthews, Whitegates ward, Earley Town Council

Cllr Majid Nagra, Loddon South ward, Woodley Town Council

Cllr Marion Shaw, Whitegates ward, Earley Town Council

Cllr Abby Tebboth, Norreys East ward, Wokingham Town Council

What do you think? Send your letters to letters@wokinghampaper.co.uk

We love to hear from you! Send us your views on issues relating to the borough (in 250 words or less) to The Wokingham Paper, Crown House, 231 Kings Road, Reading RG1 4LS or email: letters@wokinghampaper.co.uk

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Views expressed in this section are not necessarily those of the paper