Wokingham Borough Council’s Liberal Democrat administration made a series of promises to residents to protect areas from development before they were elected, then broke them in their Local Plan for future housing development. When challenged, they try to blame anyone but themselves. They simply cannot be trusted.
When the Plan was debated at the Full Council meeting in September 2024, I said that as a constructive Opposition, there were parts local Conservatives could support, such as protection of the Green Belt. However, we had concerns about other elements especially development of almost 4,000 houses at Hall Farm. Local residents have repeatedly signalled their opposition to this development, and we feel it’s right their views are represented – especially as the Liberal Democrat run Council has ignored their concerns again and again, despite campaigning against it before taking power.
The Liberal Democrats voted to develop Hall Farm, even though the previous Liberal Democrat Council Leader, and now Wokingham’s MP, campaigned against it. They voted to develop in Wokingham Without and Finchampstead, even though Liberal Democrat councillor Marc Brunel-Walker started a petition in Wokingham Without against 830 new houses, and former Liberal Democrat councillor Jordan Montgomery put out a leaflet saying “The Lib Dems are opposing… plans for major development in the countryside around Wokingham Without and Finchampstead which they believe to be unsustainable”.
The Conservative Group is deeply concerned about the impact of developments in the Local Plan on traffic and congestion. Modelling severely underestimates the amount of traffic for Hall Farm, using pre-pandemic data and making unrealistic assumptions about the number of people who will commute out of the area. This added congestion will predominately affect Earley, and other areas such as Arborfield and Barkham, and Shinfield.
Developers have acknowledged cars will be a dominant feature of Hall Farm. Yet the Plan has an overreliance on public transport in its assumptions, with no clear idea of how residents will get to transport hubs such as Reading station. One of the main accesses to the Hall Farm site is via a bridge, single lane, over the M4 to Lower Earley Way, joining at the Meldreth Way roundabout. This will cause a significant increase in traffic on this road, which as everyone knows is often gridlocked at peak times, and will particularly affect my residents in Hillside, as well as people currently living in Hawkedon, Shinfield and Winnersh.
The Council has placed a lot of emphasis on delivering mitigations for traffic congestion. But modelling demonstrates this won’t completely prevent increased congestion. Nor is it clear if there is enough money in the scheme.
When the draft Local Plan was considered by councillors, Conservatives proposed removing Hall Farm and Barkham Square from the Local Plan, deferring a decision so officers could come up with alternatives looking at brown field sites and drawing up exceptional circumstances for a lower housing requirement, as allowed for the National Planning Policy Framework. Liberal Democrats and Labour councillors voted this down.
The Conservatives have listened to residents and we are clear we do not support this plan. On 7th May, you will get the chance to vote for a Conservative Party that will take your concerns about planning seriously.
