THE ongoing debate about whether the northern parishes of the borough – Hurst, Twyford, Wargrave, Remenham, and Ruscombe – is taking their fair share of housing development was raised in the council chamber.
Sonning councillor Michael Firmager said: “Given that coalition Members have criticised the lack of development in Hurst, Twyford and the Northern Parishes, will the Executive Member for Planning explain how many houses the Council plans to build there?”
The new executive member for planning and the local plan – which sets out the council’s housebuilding policies until 2036 – is Cllr Lindsay Ferris, a member for Twyford.
He said the council would set the strategy for future development in due course, following the previous administration’s consultation last year.
“The consultation proposed several areas of land for new housing across Wokingham borough, including land in the northern parishes of Charvil, Hurst, Ruscombe, Sonning and Twyford, which deliver around 460 new homes,” he said.
“Sites with existing planning permission and other minor developments would be in addition to this.
Comments received would be reviewed and analysed alongside technical information before the council presents a new version of the proposals.
“Clearly, it would be wrong for me to predetermine the local plan process,” Cllr Ferris said. “I cannot comment on future decisions. It should be noted that large parts of the northern parishes form part the Metropolitan Greenbelt surrounding London.
“Any changes to this would need to demonstrate exceptional circumstances.”
Cllr Firmager sought clarification that the local plan was on track for being in place by the end of 2023. If it wasn’t, the borough would be at risk of speculative development.
Confirming it was, Cllr Ferris said: “We are working to meet our obligations as much as we can.
“We had just under 3,000 submissions to the last local plan update and the officers have only just completed assessing them.”
