Despite the heavy snowfall during the day, the first day of the Arborfield Community Planning Weekend went ahead as planned. Alongside an almost full turnout from the developers and their partners a small number of local residents made it to the community centre. There was almost no representation from Wokingham Borough Council, indeed even David Lee who was supposed to give a welcome stayed away due to the snow. For pretty well the whole afternoon the locals were outnumbered by the developers and their partners.
Although it stuck to the structure laid out on the flyer, the timings didn’t exactly match, not least because the “Problems” section of the Problems, Dreams and Solutions exercise took a lot longer than expected. Following that those present broke into five groups to look at particular aspects of the design of the development, and what will need to happen to build the new community.
Unlike previous consultations where the local residents have been presented with a completed plan, the process is much more of a consultation, so for example there was a debate about the contentious placement of a primary school on current green space where the tennis courts are currently located. All of these discussions and the opinions of those present we are assured will go into the plan. Further work will be done in the sessions tomorrow between 12pm and 4pm.
It is really important that as many people as possible put their opinions in at this stage, before the overall design is ‘locked in’ by a planning application. By far the best way to do this is by coming along and participating in the workshop. For example one of the workshop groups today sat down with a map of the area and the members of the consortium responsible for roads and actually went through with them the numerous traffic problems, and explained to them as local residents what the issues were, giving a different view on the raw data the formal traffic surveys produce.
If you can only spare a shorter period of time you can come along and talk directly to one of the many representatives of the planning consultants who are running the workshops. You can also submit any thoughts you may have via e-mail through the address on the flyer: ia@jtp.co.uk
The feedback and ideas received at these sessions will be incorporated into a more detailed masterplan that will be presented to the community on Wednesday January 30th at 7:30pm.
The developers are keen to put in a planning application in March, despite Wokingham Borough Council not expecting to be providing a traffic plan before May. From discussions today it was suggested that the developers will go with their own figures if the work from Wokingham is not forthcoming. The developers are moving to a tight timescale so it is vitally important we influence their design before the design is finalised and the planning application goes in. Experience in Shinfield shows that whatever they have said in the past Wokingham Borough will not be able to stop a developer pushing an unsatisfactory plan through on appeal, so if you can please try and attend tomorrow.
Arborfield Community Planning Weekend Day 1
Despite the heavy snowfall during the day, the first day of the Arborfield Community Planning Weekend went ahead as planned. Alongside an almost full turnout from the developers and their partners a small number of local residents made it to the community centre. There was almost no representation from Wokingham Borough Council, indeed even David Lee who was supposed to give a welcome stayed away due to the snow. For pretty well the whole afternoon the locals were outnumbered by the developers and their partners.
Although it stuck to the structure laid out on the flyer, the timings didn’t exactly match, not least because the “Problems” section of the Problems, Dreams and Solutions exercise took a lot longer than expected. Following that those present broke into five groups to look at particular aspects of the design of the development, and what will need to happen to build the new community.
Unlike previous consultations where the local residents have been presented with a completed plan, the process is much more of a consultation, so for example there was a debate about the contentious placement of a primary school on current green space where the tennis courts are currently located. All of these discussions and the opinions of those present we are assured will go into the plan. Further work will be done in the sessions tomorrow between 12pm and 4pm.
It is really important that as many people as possible put their opinions in at this stage, before the overall design is ‘locked in’ by a planning application. By far the best way to do this is by coming along and participating in the workshop. For example one of the workshop groups today sat down with a map of the area and the members of the consortium responsible for roads and actually went through with them the numerous traffic problems, and explained to them as local residents what the issues were, giving a different view on the raw data the formal traffic surveys produce.
If you can only spare a shorter period of time you can come along and talk directly to one of the many representatives of the planning consultants who are running the workshops. You can also submit any thoughts you may have via e-mail through the address on the flyer: ia@jtp.co.uk
The feedback and ideas received at these sessions will be incorporated into a more detailed masterplan that will be presented to the community on Wednesday January 30th at 7:30pm.
The developers are keen to put in a planning application in March, despite Wokingham Borough Council not expecting to be providing a traffic plan before May. From discussions today it was suggested that the developers will go with their own figures if the work from Wokingham is not forthcoming. The developers are moving to a tight timescale so it is vitally important we influence their design before the design is finalised and the planning application goes in. Experience in Shinfield shows that whatever they have said in the past Wokingham Borough will not be able to stop a developer pushing an unsatisfactory plan through on appeal, so if you can please try and attend tomorrow.
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