We are pleased to have received notification that Wokingham Borough Council have responded to criticism from our group and others and have scheduled the next Arborfield Community Forum for Monday November 11th, at 7pm, at the Henry Street Garden Centre.
A full agenda will be released in due course, but the announcement highlights that representatives of the Arborfield Garrison Landowners’ Consortium will be asked to provide an update on the planning application at this forum, so this is an important opportunity to come along and talk to the consortium about what changes they are making to their plans in response to the extensive criticisms of their application.
As far as we are aware, although Wokingham Borough Council have asked the consortium to withdraw the application no decision on whether they are going to do so has been made. As Cllr David Lee suggested at the previous forum the newly appointed Crest Nicholson are looking at significant changes to the design – the kind of changes that should require a new application, however the existing plan was put together during the consultation weekend that many people attended and contributed to back in January, and the older members of the consortium will have invested a good deal of time and money in putting this plan together. Whilst there may be a number of issues with the application, the plan has had a good deal of public consultation.
We would urge the AGLC to come to a decision sooner rather than later, and also if they choose to significantly change the plan this needs to be properly consulted on and not sneaked through under changes to an existing application.
