The Defence Estates View

We thought we would share this slightly different view of the Arborfield Strategic Development Location with you (click on the image for a larger view), as in some ways it gives a much more detailed view of the kind of layout we could expect than the general areas shown in the maps in the Wokingham Borough Documents.

This image is taken from this document produced by Entec UK an Environmental and Engineering Consultancy who have been employed by Defence Estates who are responsible for disposal of the Garrison land.

Things to note are that this is a plan for 5000 houses – the Arborfield Consultation Draft apparently calls for 3500, but with careful reading you find that the remaining 1500 are to be delivered after 2026, outside the current plan period – and as Barkham Parish Council suggest, perhaps outside the current SDL. As such it does broadly fit in with the areas laid out in the maps in the Arborfield Consultation Draft. A key difference from the point of view of existing residents though is that the nursery and green area in between Sheerlands Road and the Church is untouched in this plan, but it lacks the green corridor that appears in the more recent documents.

Probably the key paragraph in the document is this, where they take credit for persuading Wokingham Borough Council to adopt the site, and also suggest that they have proposals to support an outline planning application…

After successfully persuading the local planning authority of the potential sustainability and deliverability of the site, the proposals were included within their core strategy. Proposals have subsequently been developed in greater depth to support an outline planning application which will include a full environmental impact assessment and energy statement. The development will provide a mixed community of 5,000 new homes.

Arborfield also features in their brochures on Landscape, Sustainable and Urban design – although the information presented is broadly similar there are parts of other diagrams and plans that may be of interest.