Further Points for the Arborfield Garrison Landowners Consortium Application

Firstly thanks to everybody who has copied us in on your comments so far, below are a selection of points that have been raised that you may like to include:

• The application proposes new full time traffic lights at California Crossroads but has no mitigation at all for White Horse Lane. White Horse Lane is currently a rat run at peak times and if there is a problem causing long queues at California Crossroads, full time traffic lights will result in significantly increased traffic trying to use the single track White Horse Lane.
• The application proposes making Commonfield Lane in Barkham one way – however Highbarn Farm uses the lane to move farm equipment from the farm to fields, is this supposed to go all the way round via Barkham Bridge, or alternatively via California Crossroads?
• The application indicates that the Garrison Church will be retained for community use, however it is also proposing to build a four storey block of flats on the Garrison Church parking. Where are the future users of the Garrison Church supposed to park?
• The application includes no plans at all for the A327 – Reading Road in Finchampstead, nor the A327 – The Street in Eversley. If the army retain their housing stock on the Garrison site MoD personell that currently walk to work will instead be driving to Aldershot along the A327 – Reading Road and the A327 – The Street.
• The community centre appears a little small considering that the proposal is to remove the existing community centre that serves the existing housing and put those functions into one community centre for the whole SDL, Jennetts Park in Bracknell has a much larger centre for many fewer houses.
• The application proposes beginning work on the Kenyon and Aegean Trust land before the MoD have fully vacated, given that since the closure announcement the MoD have gradually increased the numbers of houses they are retaining what guarantees do we have that the MoD won’t renege on their promises again – the MoD first said they would leave Arborfield Garrison in 1937 and they’re still here! We increasingly run the risk of having a significant community of service personnel and their families with limited facilities surrounded by half a new community because the MoD still occupy land that is needed for new facilities. Building should not be allowed to start until the MoD have fully vacated the site how many more times will Wokingham Borough Council believe MoD promises only to be let down?
• Wildlife and the countryside will slowly be lost for ever due to traffic and urbanization.  Finchampstead is currently a place to walk and observe wildlife. Deer, red kite, bluebells on White Horse lane in the Spring and many other features of real countryside not sterile SANGs. Gradually traffic is eroding the environs of Finchampstead as a habitat for wildlife. The pace of this deterioration will be considerably increased by the new development . Environmental degradation occurs very slowly and you are only aware of it when it is too late to reverse.
• Regarding north-south traffic, a Government-funded bypass from Shinfield to the west of Arborfield and past Eversley will actually attract through traffic from a wide area and become a de-facto M4-M3 link, urbanising some delightful countryside.
• The Woosehill application was initially turned down on the grounds of ‘prematurity’. Having been told that Census 2011 travel-to-work data won’t be available until at least October, and because we don’t yet know what will happen to the Lyneham development, can we ask for a deferral on the grounds of ‘prematurity’ until they are published?

• The bypass route has not been announced, and must be able to calibrate its effect based on known travel-to-work patterns of civilian Garrison-area residents from the 2011 Census; the data won’t be available until at least the end of 2013.

• Until the Station Link Road is complete and in operation, we won’t know whether it will improve matters or make them worse for eastbound traffic from Arborfield. In any event, we do know that there will be more peak-time trains through Wokingham in the next couple of years.

Please feel free to share your letters and e-mails and we will pass on any new points that are made.

If you have lost, or didn’t receive a letter with details on how to respond, details can be found on the Wokingham Borough site. The page also includes a list of matters that are considered not relevant for any comments.