URGENT: Arborfield SDL Consultation Tomorrow and Saturday

As you may have seen from the e-mail from the council, or in the glossy brochure posted through many doors in the area, the Marino Family Trust are finally ready to share with residents their plans for “Hogwood Garden Village” the southern part of the Arborfield SDL that sits entirely within Finchampstead.

Typically despite all their promises over the months the council was notified of the public consultation on Tuesday 15th July, residents received the brochures on Wednesday 16th July, and the consultation is on Thursday 17th July at the FBC Centre and Saturday 19th at Henry Street Garden Centre – giving residents about 24 hours notice.

The whole rushed process is just a cynical move to ensure the trust can tick the box for having conducted a public consultation when they put the planning application in before the end of the month, as any reputable organisation that is serious about getting the opinions of local residents would give adequate notice – weeks not hours, and wouldn’t arrange the consultation in a period when significant numbers of people who would be interested are likely to be on holiday.

The Marino Trust has been preparing this application for over a year – some residents will have met their team back at the Community Planning Weekend in January 2013, and now the key element of public consultation is rushed out.

Despite their cynical efforts to make it difficult for residents to attend we would urge as many people as possible to attend the exhibition and share their opinions with the team. They claim that any comments we make will be fed back into the application – although given that this is to go in by the end of July quite what changes they can make at this short notice remains to be seen.

The exhibition will be at the FBC Centre in Gorse Ride, Finchampstead from 2pm to 7pm tomorrow, Thursday 17th July 2014, and from 2pm to 5:30pm on Saturday 19th July 2014 at Henry Street Garden Centre in Arborfield.