Thank you to everyone who took the time and trouble to attend the Arborfield Garrison Landowners Consortium hosted exhibition of their planning application this week. Although once again there were issues with pre-publicity, a large number of people turned up to review the plans.
In general we were pleased to see that the plans were broadly the same as those which had come from the community planning weekend earlier in the year, with small changes such as the addition of allotments or a community orchard adjacent to the tennis courts on Baird Road rather than significant relocation of key buildings or new housing areas.
The plans causing most discussion of course were the developers traffic mitigation plans.
Notably absent were any plans for a bypass – this being because the AGLC proposal (mentioned on one of the boards) is still changes to the Arborfield Cross roundabout – and also any mitigation for the Finchampstead stretch of the A327 down to the Tally Ho and on into Eversley. Questions on those areas were generally referred to Wokingham Borough Council and not the developers problem. What plans there were showed some consistency in that the developers answer to all the potential traffic black spots, Barkham Road and California Crossroads for example, seems to be to remove existing mini roundabouts and replace them with traffic lights. By way of an example under the developer plans the four mile drive into Wokingham from Arborfield would go through four additional sets of traffic lights within the space of a mile going through Barkham. Another proposal which perhaps people didn’t spot is to ‘solve’ issues with Commonfield Lane by making it a one way street.
Other issues were ones of phasing, in particular around the secondary school. The AGLC representatives were highlighting that Wokingham was wanting the secondary school open by September 2015, the problem being that it is adjacent to one of the last parts of the garrison to be occupied and according to their own phasing plans an area that won’t be developed until 2017. It is perhaps not the ideal educational environment to have a full scale demolition going on right next door to the school…
As ever we would welcome any feedback or comments on the exhibition members may have, and we will feed that back to the next liaison meeting with the council in a couple of weeks.
The full planning application will eventually be available online at the Wokingham Borough Council website. AGLC have made their exhibition boards available online copies can be seen below:
Exhibition Boards 25th April 1
Exhibition-Boards 25thApril 2
Arborfield Garrison Landowners Consortium Exhibition
Thank you to everyone who took the time and trouble to attend the Arborfield Garrison Landowners Consortium hosted exhibition of their planning application this week. Although once again there were issues with pre-publicity, a large number of people turned up to review the plans.
In general we were pleased to see that the plans were broadly the same as those which had come from the community planning weekend earlier in the year, with small changes such as the addition of allotments or a community orchard adjacent to the tennis courts on Baird Road rather than significant relocation of key buildings or new housing areas.
The plans causing most discussion of course were the developers traffic mitigation plans.
Notably absent were any plans for a bypass – this being because the AGLC proposal (mentioned on one of the boards) is still changes to the Arborfield Cross roundabout – and also any mitigation for the Finchampstead stretch of the A327 down to the Tally Ho and on into Eversley. Questions on those areas were generally referred to Wokingham Borough Council and not the developers problem. What plans there were showed some consistency in that the developers answer to all the potential traffic black spots, Barkham Road and California Crossroads for example, seems to be to remove existing mini roundabouts and replace them with traffic lights. By way of an example under the developer plans the four mile drive into Wokingham from Arborfield would go through four additional sets of traffic lights within the space of a mile going through Barkham. Another proposal which perhaps people didn’t spot is to ‘solve’ issues with Commonfield Lane by making it a one way street.
Other issues were ones of phasing, in particular around the secondary school. The AGLC representatives were highlighting that Wokingham was wanting the secondary school open by September 2015, the problem being that it is adjacent to one of the last parts of the garrison to be occupied and according to their own phasing plans an area that won’t be developed until 2017. It is perhaps not the ideal educational environment to have a full scale demolition going on right next door to the school…
As ever we would welcome any feedback or comments on the exhibition members may have, and we will feed that back to the next liaison meeting with the council in a couple of weeks.
The full planning application will eventually be available online at the Wokingham Borough Council website. AGLC have made their exhibition boards available online copies can be seen below:
Exhibition Boards 25th April 1
Exhibition-Boards 25thApril 2
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