EVERSLEY residents hit out at commercial waste company, R Collard over its previous breaches of planning control, in a bid to stop planning approval during a meeting last week.
Resident Gareth Rees delivered a passionate and detailed speech at the Wokingham borough council planning meeting on Wednesday, February 12.
He stated that in 2017, R Collard was fined more than £22,000 for breaching planning controls and using land in a way they did not have permission to.
The company was ordered to restore the land to farmland — but Mr Rees said that to date, they have not complied with these demands.
In November, Palmarium Properties Limited submitted an application to change the use of land, at 78 Reading Road and to the rear of 80 Reading Road to industrial use.
However, almost 30 objections were made to the proposal.
These include road safety and access, hours of operation, site sustainability, inappropriateness of industrial use in a residential area and failure to comply with previous enforcement notices including restoration of farmland.
Eversley resident Hatty Masser objected to the plans via the planning portal, stating that planning permission should not be granted without a new transport assessment.
She is concerned that the existing assessment is inaccurate and misleading, as HGVs struggle to pass the tight corner at the bottom of Fleet Hill by the Tally Ho pub, and the pinch point at Eversley Bridge.
Ms Masser argued that the village was not a “local area equipped with wide carriageways”, as stated in the current assessment.
She added that the roads are “too narrow for HGVs to pass oncoming traffic without mounting the pavements or crossing into the opposite lane forcing oncoming traffic to stop and give way.”
The planning application was deferred, after Cllr Stephen Conway suggested a site visit.
