“Is that it?” about sums up the comments from a lot of residents who attended the two consultation afternoons put on by the Marino Family Trust and their representatives last Thursday and Saturday.
Things didn’t bode too well when we were given barely twenty-four hours notice of the first event. One of the first visitors e-mailed us shortly afterwards and said that he thought that the three display boards with identical content to the brochure we had received were the introduction, but when he asked he was told that was all there was. Another local resident who contacted us asked when the booking was made at Henry Street Garden Centre and was told it had been made three weeks previously. When he then asked why residents weren’t told at that point, the honest answer came back “We didn’t think we’d be ready”.
With regards to the Crest Nicholson/MoD consortium responsible for the other part of the Strategic Development Location the impression we’re getting is that after the embarrassment of withdrawing the planning application they are working hard on producing a good application this time around – they are certainly giving the impression of having upped their game. Given that the Marino Family Trust are local, and Roger Bullworthy their main representative is a familiar face at Community Forum meetings and also attended all of the consultation carried out by the MoD consortium last year it is a shame that the knowledge of key issues he would have built up didn’t translate into a better exhibition.
We are grateful to those residents who have shared their concerns with us, please also share your concerns with the Marino Family themselves using the contact details provided on the brochure. Unlike Crest Nicholson and the MoD who will build the houses and go, we understand that the Marino Family are going to continue to live locally, so up to now that has given us a level of confidence that they are aware of local issues and concerns – that confidence has taken rather a knock after this exhibition for many people.
A number of key points have been raised:
- Bridleways and using the opportunity of the SDL to properly connect the bridleways on either side of the SDL together came out as a big issue in the MoD consultation. This concern has been totally ignored in the Marino Family plans.
- The main industrial/employment area sits on the eastern side of the development, the major road access is on the west, other than the existing access along Biggs Lane, Park Lane or along Nine Mile Ride, the obvious access is along the Nine Mile Ride Extension straight in from the A327 through the centre of the SDL.
- The Opportunities and Constraints map shows quite a lot of trees and woodland with high retention value. Given the Wokingham Borough Council commitment to put protection orders on all significant trees on the development, rather a lot of these high retention value woodland seems to be missing on the other plans.
- There is very limited access to the development from the south – the key access points are from the north directly from the Crest Nicholson development, and east onto Nine Mile Ride.
- The Garden Village principles reads like marketing fluff – the typical images on the back page bear little relation to the kind of housing layouts indicated by the illustrative masterplan the majority of which don’t appear to conform to Garden Village principles. Indeed nowhere do the developers actually define what they understand Garden Village principles to be!
- The current biggest local concerns are the traffic effects of putting all these houses at the end of Nine Mile Ride – Finchampstead residents are overwhelmingly worried about what will happen at critical junctions such as California Crossroads, and the potential for increased traffic on Park Lane, White Horse Lane and other roads struggling with traffic already.
The brochure started with the line “We have the opportunity to create a high quality, well-designed and exemplary garden village at Hogwood Farm”, sentiments with which we’d agree. However as a first step in convincing us that the Marino Family have the plans to actually produce that, this exhibition left an awful lot to be desired.
Is That It?
“Is that it?” about sums up the comments from a lot of residents who attended the two consultation afternoons put on by the Marino Family Trust and their representatives last Thursday and Saturday.
Things didn’t bode too well when we were given barely twenty-four hours notice of the first event. One of the first visitors e-mailed us shortly afterwards and said that he thought that the three display boards with identical content to the brochure we had received were the introduction, but when he asked he was told that was all there was. Another local resident who contacted us asked when the booking was made at Henry Street Garden Centre and was told it had been made three weeks previously. When he then asked why residents weren’t told at that point, the honest answer came back “We didn’t think we’d be ready”.
With regards to the Crest Nicholson/MoD consortium responsible for the other part of the Strategic Development Location the impression we’re getting is that after the embarrassment of withdrawing the planning application they are working hard on producing a good application this time around – they are certainly giving the impression of having upped their game. Given that the Marino Family Trust are local, and Roger Bullworthy their main representative is a familiar face at Community Forum meetings and also attended all of the consultation carried out by the MoD consortium last year it is a shame that the knowledge of key issues he would have built up didn’t translate into a better exhibition.
We are grateful to those residents who have shared their concerns with us, please also share your concerns with the Marino Family themselves using the contact details provided on the brochure. Unlike Crest Nicholson and the MoD who will build the houses and go, we understand that the Marino Family are going to continue to live locally, so up to now that has given us a level of confidence that they are aware of local issues and concerns – that confidence has taken rather a knock after this exhibition for many people.
A number of key points have been raised:
The brochure started with the line “We have the opportunity to create a high quality, well-designed and exemplary garden village at Hogwood Farm”, sentiments with which we’d agree. However as a first step in convincing us that the Marino Family have the plans to actually produce that, this exhibition left an awful lot to be desired.
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