The Lib Dem Council needs to raise its game in handling planning issues for our community. It needs to make a stronger case to demonstrate that the recent high rate of building has more than taken care of the targets in the current local plan. It needs to demonstrate there is plenty of land with planning permissions available for the rest of the plan.
It also needs to get on with producing a successor plan. The government has made it very clear that if the Council does not have an up to date local plan then Inspectors may well grant more housebuilding permissions and may well choose locations local people do not want to see built on. I have worked with a group of MPs to secure the promise from the government that they will not impose mandatory top down targets for numbers of homes to be built. More power will wrest with local Council to design a suitable local plan . An up to date local plan will be a key influence on any planning appeals after it comes into force. So get on with it, Wokingham Borough.
January 10, 2024
It is for local people to decide what to have in and around their homes. National government should not interfere by forcing in concrete blocks of people from elsewhere, turning a haven into an unpleasant lump. Lib Dem incompetence, inertia and idiocy provide no way to maintain a happy community.
January 10, 2024
What is happening about national government taking into account previous building in excess of targets?
Are local councils now allowed to take that into account, or is a decision still pending?
What lobbying are you doing about that and ensuring that decision is of benefit to your constituents?
Unfortunately, since the majority on the council changed, I have been seeing way too much party politicking going on rather than people working together in the interests of the residents of Wokingham Borough. It’s our daily lives you are all playing your games with. Our lives would probably be a lot better if you’d all start acting like grown ups.
Reply Yes I have of course made points about average rates of build. The big advance has come with the ending of top down targets but the Council does have to respond by producing a new plan. THis is not playing politics but pointing out we need a plan to offer more protection in the future.
January 10, 2024
But what’s the point in producing a plan before knowing whether the previous excess builds can be offset?
That means creating a plan twice, once now and once when Michael Gove finally makes a decision. That’s hardly productive use of staff time. I would hope that, with your push to improve public sector productivity, you would not want public sector staff to be forced to have to do the same work twice .
Across all the councils of all political persuasions, that will result in an awful lot of wasted time and inefficiency.
January 10, 2024
John, government and council assessments of the benefits of rural land versus urbanisation is not given enough consideration. Since British people are having few children (which is a problem) all population growth is coming from unwanted legal and illegal immigration. At a government level NO IMMIGRATION should be achieved through proper enforcement of borders and locally any allocation of social housing should be to people who have been living long term in this area. Maintaining parks, woodland and agricultural land should be prioritised over house building for an immigrant population needs to be the principal policy.
January 10, 2024
I believe that last month Aldi have just had planning approved for a supermarket on flood pain land opposite Halfords at Winnersh, subject to road entry and exit requirements being met.
The nearby Winnersh roundabout and surrounding land was under water last week !
Likewise the Tesla EV recharging site next to what was called the MOAT house Hotel. (clue in the name)
All of this displaced water will then help spread wider in the area it already affects.
January 10, 2024
Spot on.
January 10, 2024
They also need to look again at the proposals for modifying the Woosehill roundabout, the idea that restricting the existing two lane entry and exit road to the Woosehill estate with a pinch point at traffic lights by narrowing the spine road to one lane each way, will lead to traffic chaos and make rat runs long Old Woosehill Lane, Chestnut Avenue and Simons lane, as traffic seeks to get around the hold ups to go in the direction of Reading.
In addition another proposed traffic light crossing on the A329 between the roundabout and Oxford road will mean further delays and back up’s into Wokingham. We had chaos when Contractors put up traffic lights in this very position only on Monday of this week, with Wokingham bound traffic backing up past the Roundabout, Emmbrook, and nearly up to the BP garage at Winnersh.
All this huge expense is suggested to be done to help the so called handful of cyclists a day who use this route.
Reply Yes, these expensive road wrecking schemes are quite wrong