We have just returned from the Arborfield SDL Highways Forum. Firstly can we say a big thank you for the fantastic turnout, a turnout so big that it had the Wokingham Borough Council staff struggling to find enough seats and left many attendees standing during the meeting. Can we also thank our friends from Eversley Matters who came along, together with a number of people new to the development from the Farley Hill area and around who as the councils modelling shows will also be impacted significantly by the development. Hopefully the turnout tonight showed both the council and the developer representative who was standing quietly in the corner observing the whole meeting the level of feeling in the area.
We will publish a full press release in due course, but there were a couple of questions that came up during the evening that the council weren’t able to answer but which we have the information to hand. Firstly being who are the developers:
The slide here is taken from the presentation the developers gave and shows the multiple landowners and how they are inter-related – you can click on the image to see a larger version. All but one of the landowners are formed into a consortium, the Arborfield Garrison Landowners’ Consortium – this consists of the MoD land represented by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation along with much smaller holdings from the Aegean Trust and Mr and Mrs Kenyon, together with Wates Developments. The rest of the land in the Finchampstead part of the development is owned by the local Marino Family Trust who for a variety of reasons are now operating separately but in cooperation with the other landowner consortium. The expectation is that they will submit a separate but linked planning application. You can see from the diagram that the two groups are also employing separate sets of consultants, which is one of the reasons that the John Thompson and Partners presentations have been fairly vague about the southern part of the site including the Hogwood Lane Industrial Estate expansion.
As was mentioned by Cllr Keith Baker at the meeting, we in AG-RAG already have channels of communication open with the council, it is worth stressing that we are named in terms of the Strategic Development Location, but our members are drawn from the surrounding villages also, so if you live in Barkham, Finchampstead, Eversley, Farley Hill or any other areas affected by the development we are happy to take your views and put them forward when we meet with the council. Please sign up to our mailing list using the links on the website, or follow our updates on social media.
In terms of the other questions, perhaps the biggest question that wasn’t addressed is how the council schedule fits in with the developer schedule. Those of you who attended the developer led Community Planning Weekend will recall that they are working towards an outline planning application in March. That planning application has to show how they will mitigate the effects of the development to achieve nil detriment. As we were told tonight the council figures to allow them to prove nil detriment will not be complete until May, and even then may be revised. As those who attended the first day of the Community Planning Weekend will remember the developer response when challenged on exactly this point by Cllr John Kaiser was to say that they will go ahead anyway with their own figures to prove nil detriment. Given the comments by Cllr Baker tonight about the success or otherwise of developer appeals, we remain deeply concerned and call on the developer and the council to work together for the good of the residents.
Arborfield SDL Highways Forum
We have just returned from the Arborfield SDL Highways Forum. Firstly can we say a big thank you for the fantastic turnout, a turnout so big that it had the Wokingham Borough Council staff struggling to find enough seats and left many attendees standing during the meeting. Can we also thank our friends from Eversley Matters who came along, together with a number of people new to the development from the Farley Hill area and around who as the councils modelling shows will also be impacted significantly by the development. Hopefully the turnout tonight showed both the council and the developer representative who was standing quietly in the corner observing the whole meeting the level of feeling in the area.
We will publish a full press release in due course, but there were a couple of questions that came up during the evening that the council weren’t able to answer but which we have the information to hand. Firstly being who are the developers:
As was mentioned by Cllr Keith Baker at the meeting, we in AG-RAG already have channels of communication open with the council, it is worth stressing that we are named in terms of the Strategic Development Location, but our members are drawn from the surrounding villages also, so if you live in Barkham, Finchampstead, Eversley, Farley Hill or any other areas affected by the development we are happy to take your views and put them forward when we meet with the council. Please sign up to our mailing list using the links on the website, or follow our updates on social media.
In terms of the other questions, perhaps the biggest question that wasn’t addressed is how the council schedule fits in with the developer schedule. Those of you who attended the developer led Community Planning Weekend will recall that they are working towards an outline planning application in March. That planning application has to show how they will mitigate the effects of the development to achieve nil detriment. As we were told tonight the council figures to allow them to prove nil detriment will not be complete until May, and even then may be revised. As those who attended the first day of the Community Planning Weekend will remember the developer response when challenged on exactly this point by Cllr John Kaiser was to say that they will go ahead anyway with their own figures to prove nil detriment. Given the comments by Cllr Baker tonight about the success or otherwise of developer appeals, we remain deeply concerned and call on the developer and the council to work together for the good of the residents.
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