Don’t forget, the next Arborfield Community Forum takes place this Monday, March 11th at 7pm at the Henry Street Garden Centre in Swallowfield Road. Please note that this is a different location from what was originally proposed, primarily as a result of the numbers of people turning up for the highways meeting taking Wokingham Borough Council rather by surprise. The agenda will include an update following the highways meeting in February, followed by an update on the development itself from Tracey Coleman, followed by a session to decide what topics to focus on at future sessions.
The minutes of previous meetings of the community forum are available from http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/communities/communityforums/arborfield, along with a copy of the presentation from the special highways forum available from http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/planningcontrol/planning/masterplanning/sdls/?assetdet3729016=233261&categoryesctl4982640=3071.
The graphic here is probably the bit of the presentation that most people were concerned about, and is a diagrammatic representation of the approximate routes a bypass could take. The map diagram deliberately only shows main routes, so it is worth clarifying where they sit geographically.
Option A is the “do nothing” option. Option B is a long bypass directly connecting directly to the end of the relief road around the South of M4 SDL at Shinfield, it then would take a path a long way from Arborfield but would have a significant effect around Farley Hill – rejoining the existing A327 at the junction with the proposed new access road into the Arborfield SDL. Option C would avoid Farley Hill and would run past Greensward Lane and Arborfield Court, it would meet the A327 again at the existing roundabout between the Garrison and the village itself. Option D would run very tight behind the houses in Chamberlain Gardens and Melrose Gardens, and alongside the recreation ground, effectively closely following the existing public footpath. Whilst this would bypass Arborfield Cross itself the extra traffic would still use the existing A327 past the houses further down the Reading Road. Option E is effectively another tight pass of Arborfield but on the eastern side, running behind the Coombes School and across the fields between Arborfield Cross and Langley Common Road.
The other really important point, especially given the confirmation this week of the information the Garrison Chaplain gave at the community planning weekend about the retention of housing by the MoD here to house troops returning from Germany to Aldershot, is that a significant number of military personnel who would currently walk to work on the base will now be working down at Aldershot and living in housing here. The bypass will have no effect whatsoever on them as they will all be driving south through Eversley. Whilst we have consistently highlighted the issue of Arborfield, with the ongoing military housing at Arborfield even after the garrison itself has gone, coming up with a viable solution for Eversley is as important as ever. On top of this as the councils own figures show just building a bypass around Arborfield would have knock on effects elsewhere in the area on the roads that haven’t been upgraded.
