The Core Strategy Process

Posted on March 23, 2010 by admin

As part of trying to raise awareness of our group, we have of course been talking to people like the Wokingham Times – indeed keep an eye out for next weeks paper where they will hopefully be running an article about our responses to the consultation.

We are very grateful to the news editor of the paper who as an observer and reporter of the process without a political position to back, kindly filled in a few of the blanks for us over the process, and indeed has said that she is happy to answer any more questions we might have. If you would like us to ask any particular questions, please let us know through the “Contact Us” page and we will pass them on.

The process has been rumbling on in one way or another since I started working for the paper five years ago. At the start of the process, developers were asked to submit their own ideas for development. Many of the ideas were utterly ridiculous, including back garden developments and other small sites, and were vetoed straight away.

The development at Arborfield Garrison has been on the cards since I started working at the paper. There was always a big question mark about when the MoD would vacate, however this seems to be more likely now, although still not confirmed.

The most vital decisions have been made in the last year or so. The council proposed where the Strategic Development Locations (SDLs) would be under the core strategy when the draft was printed over a year ago and submitted to the planning inspectorate. A public inquiry led by a government planning inspector took place last year in Wokingham. The Wokingham Times had a reporter at most of the public sessions (there were several spanning over a month) and each SDL was debated, with submissions from the council and local people who had registered to speak at the inquiry. Following this, it took several months for the inspector to return his report, however when it did arrive back late last year it broadly approved the core strategy, including the principle of development at the SDLs, with some very minor changes. The council formally adopted the core strategy in February. This means the principle of development at these locations has been approved. Unfortunately, the time to object to building homes on any of these sites has now passed, as the council can now say it carried out full consultation in producing and approving the core strategy.

Following this, workshops and consultations have taken place (all publicised in The Wokingham Times) to produce masterplans that tie in with what the core strategy proposes. The masterplans merely plan out the detail of the SDLs, they do not ask if houses should be built there at all. The latest masterplan consultation finishes today. I think it highly likely following this the masterplans will all be adopted, albeit with minor changes in response to what residents have suggested.

It is also worth saying, as I am sure you have been told, the housing numbers are not Wokingham’s idea. They came from the government. The places where the homes are built are what the council is trying to influence.

The Wokingham Times’ part in this has always been to follow whatever points are raised at inquiries and other various stages of the core strategy production process, as well as follow up on comments sent to us by local residents. Unfortunately, as much as I would like them to, not everyone in Wokingham reads The Wokingham Times, and so I think the many, many stories we have written on the core strategy and masterplans will have been missed by most. One of the biggest stories for us to come out of the core strategy process is the relocation of The Emmbrook School to Arborfield, on which we have done several front page reports.

A great deal of what we are reporting on at the moment ties in with the core strategy, including stories on roads improvements.

I am happy to answer any further questions about the core strategy and what The Wokingham Times has reported if you would like.

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Consultation Timeline

Posted on March 22, 2010 by admin

One question that has been raised on several occasions is quite how we got to this point, especially when residents discover that the current consultation is only on the implementation of an already adopted Core Strategy. Unfortunately the Wokingham Borough site is not best for navigating as much of the extensive documentation is under technical names that you need to know in order to find them. However, many of the key documents can be found on the Borough Core Strategy page.

The stages the Core Strategy process has been through are as follows:

The following timetable outlines our progress on the Core Strategy:

  1. Executive agree Initial Options – 26 May 2005
  2. Consult on the Initial Options from 15 June to 27 July 2005
  3. Executive consider responses to Initial Options and agree Alternatives for the Draft Core Strategy – 27 October 2005
  4. Consult on the Alternatives for the Draft Core Strategy from 9 November to 21 December 2005
  5. Executive consider responses to the Alternatives for the Draft Core Strategy and agree submission document – 27 July 2006. The Executive deferred agreeing the submission Core Strategy.
  6. Executive consider revised responses to the Alternatives for the Draft Core Strategy and agree submission document – 26 June 2008
  7. Submit Core Strategy to the Secretary of State – 20 August 2008
  8. Consult on Submitted Core Strategy from 20 August to 1 October 2008
  9. Consult on Site Allocation Representations arising from Submission Core Strategy from 5 November to 17 December 2008
  10. Pre-Examination Meeting – 20 January 2009
  11. Examination Hearings- 17 March – 30 April 2009
  12. Binding Inspector’s Report – received 27 October, published 6 November 2009
  13. Adoption – 29 January 2010

As you will no doubt see, there have been a number of consultations at various stages of the process, although we have had comments that many residents were totally unaware that these were going on. In response to our comments Gary Cowan, our local councillor and also executive member for Local and Regional Planning has included the following comment in a number of his response letters both to us and to others:

With respect to communications there is a communications plan which covered extensive consultation by letter, press advert and radio. I insisted on this as I felt it was crucial residents were kept fully informed. I have just asked that this is updated to take in all relevant communications and once that is done I can forward it to you. I have also asked that it is put on the WBC website.

We look forward to seeing the communications plan published.

For much more detail about the Arborfield Garrison SDL, albeit from a Barkham perspective, we can certainly recommend taking a look at the extensive Barkham Development Watch pages which includes links to all the major documents in the process including the South-East Regional Plan with direct references to all the pertinent paragraphs in the document for us at Arborfield.

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Discussions with John Redwood

Posted on March 22, 2010 by admin

Following on from the e-mail we received from John Redwood our current MP and Conservative PPC for the General Election, we replied as follows:

Dear Mr. Redwood,

Thank you for your reply.

Re your assertion that we should lobby our Councillors, many of our local residents in conjunction with the local action group is doing just this – and doing so quite vociferously: We are lobbying Councillors, the Master Planner and other relevant people directly by e-mail & letter and indirectly through local media channels.

Re your “suggestion” to the Council that they await the outcome to the MOD’s plans and timetable, this is eminently sensible. And whilst I wouldn’t expect you to be able to answer on behalf of the local council, albeit a Conservative council, why they won’t accept your advice and wait for the outcome of the defence review, perhaps you would answer a fundamental question:

Should there be a Conservative government voted into power at the forthcoming General Election, will the new Government announce that they will simply scrap the current government’s new housing policy for the SE, including the imposition of 13,000 new homes in Wokingham, or at least suspend the policy pending a comprehensive review based on prevalent economic circumstances? Such an undertaking would be far more welcomed than a wishy-washy statement such as “measures will be taken to reduce the pressures from central government on Councils to build more homes than local people wish“, That may be far too little far too late!

Regards,
Martin Rutter on behalf of the Arborfield Garrison Residents Action Group

John has replied as follows:

Thank you for the email. Yes, the Conservatives have said they will change the planning system, giving more scope to Councils to determine how many homes to allow and removing regional quangos.

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Ongoing Discussions with George Davidson

Posted on March 22, 2010 by admin

George Davidson has followed up his previous e-mail with the following offer:

Dear Mr Rutter,

Reading my email on your website, I realise I may not have been 100% clear.

The Secretary of State considers the design of all of these kinds of large developments. That gives us an opportunity to opportunity to lobby the Secretary of State to amend the design. As the Sec of State is (currently) Labour I would be more than happy to help you in this process.

Do let me know if I can help in this process.

best wishes,

George

We have responded as follows:

Dear Mr Davidson,

Thank you for your original reply and for your follow up e-mail as well.

Whilst the individuals within our residents group may have their own personal political views, our residents group itself is entirely non political and we would welcome any support you can provide us, including the lobbying of the Secretary of State.

So that our position is also 100% clear (to use your phrase), we are not against development per se. And we are not against any development in Arborfield per se. Indeed, many of us have realised for some time that if / when the MOD closed the Arborfield Garrison, it was likely to become a prime development site. So we wouldn’t stand in the way of development “behind the wire” as it’s been labelled, as long as the development was carefully planned and fully funded with robust S106 guarantees.

However, we are totally and utterly opposed to any development of the beautiful countryside, green fields and open spaces in Arborfield. We are encouraged with your statement that you “believe the priority should be to build on brownfield land in the first instance”, and would like to lobby the Secretary of State to this effect i.e. that any development in Arborfield should start only after the MOD has vacated the Garrison site, and that any development should be restricted to the brownfield site that they have vacated – as I said above, only the site that is currently “behind the wire”.

So, thank-you once again for your offer of support and I look forward to hearing from you as to how best to take this forward quickly and effectively.

Regards,
Martin Rutter on behalf of Arborfield Garrison Residents Action Group

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Who Can Contribute to the Consultation?

Posted on March 21, 2010 by admin

As we’ve mentioned before the consultation counts separate responses, so you can contribute multiple letters from the same house, for example in one family both parents have written, and the children have written letters as well.

This can be extended further, as it’s not limited to people who live on the Garrison. For example residents of the village are responding commenting on the vague plans for a bypass, and residents further afield in villages such as Eversley and Barkham could comment on the increase in traffic in their respective villages caused by the houses here.

Residents elsewhere in Wokingham could comment on the adverse effects on their area by the development here, for example by the changes in traffic patterns caused by concentrating a large number of the secondary school places in a school here.

You could even ask relations with an interest to contribute, for example grandparents expressing concern about the welfare of their grandchildren as a result of the development.

Contributions can also be made on behalf of companies, groups and organisations, so if you are involved in anything like that that has an interest, they can contribute.

Remember this is a public consultation, and anybody can contribute. The more distinct contributions there are, the greater the message that gets sent to the planners. All they have to do is e-mail to spd@wokingham.gov.uk prior to 5pm on this coming Tuesday.

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Consultation Countdown

Posted on March 20, 2010 by admin

Don’t forget, the consultation closes on Tuesday!

If you haven’t already, please write a letter and make your feelings known.

As you are aware, our local council has already adopted the principal of development at Arborfield Garrison, but there are two key points that you can make to influence what actually comes here and how it affects you.

  1. It is still unclear when, or indeed if the Garrison will close – the plan incorrectly states 2012 whereas the MoD are now saying 2013 at the earliest, therefore it is vital that you question this, and make it clear that greenfield development should not be allowed before the brownfield has been used.
  2. Arborfield Garrison is a small community with limited public transport and already overcrowded roads, the new development will primarily become a commuter community, so question how people are going to get around, particularly towards Reading and the M4, Wokingham over Barkham Bridge, Basingstoke through Swallowfield and the M3 through Eversley. The current plan seems to rely on an almost instant and significant increase in bus use by the population.
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Candidate Response from George Davidson

Posted on March 19, 2010 by admin

This is the response we have received from George Davidson who is standing in the Wokingham Constituency for the Labour Party.

Dear Mr Rutter,

Thank you for your letter. I understand your concern about Wokingham Council’s plans to allow this huge area to be built on.

Wokingham Council have fudged the decision about providing housing for too long. For this reason there is now very little affordable housing in the area. It is almost impossible for young people either to afford to buy or rent on the borough. So now they are solving the problem in a ham-fisted way by building such a massive development in one go. I do believe though that it is essential that we build housing to provide homes for the people of this country. I have met too many young people who can no longer afford to rent or buy and who have returned home to live with parents. Building new homes also creates jobs for builders, plasterers, fitters, sparks, plumbers and labourers. When the new owners need to fill the home with carpets and fridges and furniture then the economy gets a further boost.

I believe the priority should be to build on brownfield land in the first instance. To say I was surprised by Wokingham BC’s decision to support the release of all of this land for housing would be an understatement.

WBC have a very poor history with this kind of development. In Lower Earley they simply failed to deliver what they could have done. The Section 106 money (which is the contribution made by developers to the fabric of the community in return for building thousands of new homes) was wasted. They promised a new secondary school and this was never built. Given that the Arborfield development looks very likely to go ahead, at least in some form, your group might want to think about what you would like delivered for the local community. A new school? A new road layout? A community centre? Then we can monitor WBC and the developer to ensure this is delivered.

I believe MPs and PPCs should do their best to represent their constituency so I would like to offer my help to the Action Group. I would like to help you to lobby the Secretary of State to amend the recommendation put forward by Wokingham Council.

Please let me know if you are interested in pursuing this further.

best wishes,

George

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Candidate Response from Prue Bray

Posted on March 19, 2010 by admin

We have now received a response from Prue Bray, who is the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate. As you may be aware she is also currently the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Wokingham Borough Council.

Hallo Mr Rutter

I am not sure how you are going to receive this reply, because I am afraid it doesn’t contain much good news for you. But I think it is much better for me to be honest with you about what has already happened and what is coming than to pretend that I can give you what you want.

I don’t know how the other people you have emailed are going to respond. What I recommend to you is that if any of them tell you they can help you stop this, ask them how they plan to do it, so that you can work out whether they are really telling you the truth. It is very tempting as an election looms for politicians to promise all sorts of things that they know they cannot possibly deliver. I am not going to do that. I realise that by not telling you what you want to hear I may very well lose your vote. If that happens I will be sorry, but I think this country needs more politicians with integrity, and so I will not – and never have – gone down the road of saying anything just to get elected.

Now to explain why I can’t promise you that it is possible to stop development on greenfield sites in Arborfield.

The Core Strategy of Wokingham Borough Council was adopted by the council at the end of January. The Lib Dems did not vote for it. We understand the need for the council to have a strategy, so that it can keep some sort of handle on development – the alternative of not having a strategy would result in a developer free for all. We disagree with some of the content, that is why we did not vote for it. But whether we disagreed or not, the fact is the Conservatives voted to adopt the strategy. That means that there is no longer any scope for fighting whether development will come to Arborfield. The number of houses for the next 20 years for the Arborfield Strategic Development Location has now been fixed at 3500 and cannot be undone. The outline of the area into which they will go has also been fixed, as has the kind of infrastructure that will come with them (schools, roads etc).

I need to be absolutely honest and open with you and say that the Liberal Democrats did not oppose the Core Strategy because it included development at Arborfield. Other parts of the strategy were, if you can believe it, much worse. It would not be fair of me to pretend either that I have been opposed to the principle of building houses at Arborfield for a long time,
or that I – or anybody else – can stop it happening. That is a very important point. The only way the Strategic Development Location can be stopped now is if the MoD decide not to sell the land. If that happens then the whole Core Strategy will be blown out of the water and that would be bad news for everybody, including Arborfield, because we will be looking at huge
amounts of infill development and concreting over even more of the countryside than is currently envisaged by the Core Strategy – and we will get far less infrastructure with that development. For example, the chances of getting a new secondary school in the south of the borough would become very small indeed.

So to be blunt, the principle of development of 3500 houses at Arborfield has now been established and it is too late to do anything to stop that. But there are a few more positive things to say.

There is currently – until 23rd March – a consultation being conducted by the council into residents’ views of the detail of how things should be laid out within that Strategic Development Location outline, and there is an exhbition in the foyer of the council offices about it. You can fill in the consultation online on the Borough Council’s website. This is called the “masterplanning” stage, and will result in some documents which lay down some rules for developers. After that will come planning applications. So there are opportunities for you and other residents to help shape the development, even if you cannot stop it. Firstly you can respond to the consultation – and I would be very happy to come and talk to you and other
residents about it over the weekend, if that would help. Secondly, once planning applications start coming in, they will be dealt with in the normal way, with the standard public consultations. Although the principle of development has now been established, that does not mean that the council has to approve any old planning application that comes along, and there will
be the chance to influence the details of the plans. Again, I am happy to come along and talk to you about how to do that when we get to that stage. I do have 10 years of experience as a councillor in dealing with planning issues, which I am more than willing to use to help you try and get the best you can for your area out of this process.

The final thing I want to say is about what has happened so far. From your email it sounds as though you were not aware that any of this was going on. I am not blaming you for that. The question is, why did a lot of residents in Arborfield not know what was going on, given the huge impact that the planned development is going to have on your community?

Let me lay out a bit of the history as to how things got to this point. The Core Strategy has been progressing through the system for several years and has been through multiple consultations, including with town and parish councils, one of which was Arborfield. It has also been the subject of a public inquiry (known as the Examination in Public), which took place over
several months in 2009. I know that there have been people from Arborfield involved in previous consultations and in workshops that have taken place and which I have personally attended, including one held in Arborfield last June, which included a tour of the proposed Strategic Development Location. People in Arborfield should have been better informed than most, because the person on the Executive of the Council who has been responsible for piloting the Core Strategy through to adoption from the start is in fact Gary Cowan, your local councillor. I will leave you to think about that for yourself.

So, to sum up, I am sorry to have to tell you that the principle and extent of development at Arborfield has now been fixed, and the only way it can be stopped is if the MoD decide not to sell the land. Assuming the sale goes ahead – which is what the council believes will happen – then I would be happy to help you try and get the best you can out of the planning process.
Meanwhile I strongly urge you to respond to the masterplanning consultation that is going on at the moment, and I would be willing to come and talk to you about that over the coming weekend if you thought that might be useful.

Finally, can I apologise for such a long email! But I thought it was important to try and make everything as clear as possible. Please come back to me if you have any further questions. And if you think it would help you to talk to other residents groups in other SDL locations, I can probably help with that too.

Best Wishes

Prue Bray

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Candidate Responses from Mark Ashwell and John Redwood

Posted on March 18, 2010 by admin

We’re pleased to report that we’ve already had responses from two of the campaigns to our letter which was only sent by e-mail this morning.

A representative of the Mark Ashwell campaign telephoned to offer support, and to arrange to meet with us to discuss the matter further. We have also received this response by email from John Redwood:

Thank you for your email.

I have written to the Council to explain that there is likely to be a Defence review under the next government, regardless of the outcome of the Election. It is possible such a review will seek to repatriate personnel from Germany, which may require continued use of the Garrison at Arborfield. I have suggested the Council await events until the background to the MOD’s plans and timetable is clearer.

I will of course represent local wishes on these matters if asked to intervene. The main emphasis should be on lobbying Councillors, as they represent the Planning Authority that makes the decision. As you will appreciate this is mainly an issue for the Council, which is the Planning Authority. Should there be a Conservative government after the election measures will be taken to reduce the pressures from central government on Councils to build more homes than local people wish.

We will provide further updates when we receive replies from the other candidates, and will collect them all together on the Letters page.

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Contacting our Parliamentary Candidates

Posted on March 18, 2010 by admin

As a group, we are actively exploring other ways by which we can help preserve the green fields around the Garrison. As such we have recently sent the following letter to all four of our local prospective parliamentary candidates. These are John Redwood (Conservative), Mark Ashwell (Independent), Prue Bray (Liberal Democrat) and George Davidson (Labour).

The letter reads as follows:

Dear Mr Redwood, Mr Davidson, Mrs Bray and Mr Ashwell,

OPEN LETTER TO THE STANDING LOCAL MP AND PROSPECTIVE PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES FOR WOKINGHAM CONSTITUENCY, FROM THE RESIDENTS OF GERRING ROAD, SHEERLANDS ROAD, TYLER DRIVE & BARKER CLOSE, ARBORFIELD

We have been aware for several years that the local MOD site would possibly close at some time in the future, at which time the Garrison site was likely to be redeveloped.

However we have only very recently (i.e. this last week), become aware of the size & extent of the proposed development of Arborfield as part of Wokingham Borough Council’s Strategic Development Plan:

Rather than develop on only brown field sites after the MOD has vacated the area, the plans are to build aggressively and extensively on greenfield sites across the village. Indeed the plans are to build upto 5,000 new houses, a secondary school, 2 new primary schools, a new district centre, a 4000m2 supermarket etc.

This level of development would require the destruction of many hundreds of trees and the loss of green fields & other open spaces currently used as play areas by our children and as quiet recreational areas for many adults. It would also mean a total transformation of our quiet and peaceful semi-rural village setting into a densely populated, busy and noisy small town.

The sense of local outrage at WBC’s plans is so strong that many of the local residents have quickly mobilised over the week-end to form an action group against the development of any green field sites in the area at all. (We reluctantly accept the need for development on brown field sites subject to the stringent condition that the local infrastructure is developed in advance of any new houses).

Please visit the website we have set up over the week-end at: http://arborfield-garrison-rag.org.uk/

As this issue will be the Number 1 local issue in the forthcoming General as well as Local Election, we would like to canvass your detailed position now. Specifically, will you support us in fighting any development of green field or other open spaces, instead demanding that development be restricted to brown field sites only?

We look forward to receiving your detailed response. Please note we intend publishing it on our website.

Regards,
Martin Rutter on behalf of the Arborfield Garrison Residents Action Group

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