An equine facility in Binfield, 32 new homes in Crowthorne, and a heavenly oasis walled garden at Reading University all feature in this week’s planning round-up.
29 new homes in Buckler’s Park, Crowthorne (Bracknell Application 2400660/FUL)
This full application covers 29 new homes in Buckler’s Park and will be decided at a planning meeting next week.
Three previously approved homes will be rotated to point in a different direction with associated open space, landscaping, highways and drainage.
The site, on the edge of the existing Buckler’s Park scheme, lies outside the defined settlement boundary and within countryside designated for a municipal depot, so the scheme doesn’t technically fit within the approved policy.
Instead of a depot, the applicant proposes public open space on the former depot land, resulting in a net gain in open space compared with the consented layout.
There would be a mixture of 6 two‑bedroom, 12 three‑bedroom, 9 four‑bedroom and 2 five‑bedroom houses, with 10 affordable units and includes 35 percent affordable housing mixed between social rent, affordable rent and shared‑ownership homes.
There are on‑plot parking spaces, garages, and 10 visitor bays, and the layout continues Buckler’s Park’s design code and character areas while protecting boundary trees.
A report from council officers accepts there will be some countryside harm but, in the context of Bracknell Forest’s lack of a five‑year housing land supply, concludes that the additional housing, affordable provision, extra open space, biodiversity net gain, and removal of the depot use outweigh that harm.
Equestrian centre at Primrose Fields, Binfield (Bracknell application PP‑14749496)
The application is for a Lawful Development Certificate for a proposed use at Primrose Fields in Binfield.
The applicant wanted to confirm that he could legally continue to use the land for keeping horses, relying on an existing permission which already allowed horses to be kept here.
The land is categorised in planning terms for keeping horses and the application states that both the existing and proposed use fall within this same sui generis equestrian use class.
The submission confirms there are no new building or engineering operations and no change of use proposed; the applicant simply wants formal certification that the use as a horse‑keeping unit is lawful on a permanent basis.
The owners had already taken advice about whether an associated “day room” could be treated as permitted development.
Harris Walled Garden, Reading University (Wokingham application number 260498 )
The University of Reading has been given sign off on works already carried out in the Harris Walled Garden on the south‑east side of the Whiteknights Campus, accessed from Wilderness Road within the wider Harris Garden historic park.
Their permission is all about two pieces that need additional permission: the building of a new central pond and the installation of more than 50 square metres of hard landscaping.
The university said that a timber teaching shelter, accessible toilet, compostable toilets, raised planters and sleeper‑edged beds with soft landscaping didn’t count as development.
The scheme repurposes a previously neglected ornamental walled garden for outdoor teaching, organised into themed areas on food production, hydrology, climate change and the value of nature, and is designed to boost biodiversity, delivering an estimated 14.77 percent biodiversity net gain through new habitats and planting.
Supporting reports conclude there will be minimal arboricultural impact, manageable surface‑water flood risk with a drainage strategy focused on the new pond, and a beneficial effect on the non‑designated heritage asset, with historic brick walls retained and repaired using traditional materials.
