This week I attended the critical public examination of the draft Local Plan produced be Wokingham Borough Council’s Liberal Democrat administration, after previously submitting written evidence. The inspectors ran a rigorous hearing, testing assumptions and seeking clarity throughout. I spoke, alongside residents, about key concerns, especially the nearly 4,000 homes proposed for Hall Farm, now rebranded as Loddon Garden Village.
Traffic is a major issue. I have previously argued, according to the current plans, traffic will be hugely increased on Lower Earley Way and Mole Road, impacting on residents living in Earley, Shinfield and surrounding areas.
Following the examination, I remain deeply concerned about traffic. Particularly the modelling carried out severely underestimates the amount of traffic for Hall Farm, using data from before the pandemic and making unrealistic baseline assumptions about the number of people who will commute out of the area.
Developers have acknowledged cars will be a dominant feature of Hall Farm. Traffic in this area is clearly going to be higher because of the lack of public transport compared to other parts of the Borough. 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, a point probed by some of the inspectors' questions.
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 grid locked at peak times. I am worried inadequate provision has been made to cope with this. Lower Earley Way is already badly congested, the Showcase roundabout floods, and it is also a contingency route for the M4 traffic.
The Council has placed a lot of emphasis on delivering mitigations for traffic congestion. This is flawed for two reasons. Firstly, the modelling demonstrates this will not completely prevent increased congestion. Secondly, I am not sure how these will be paid for, considering the Council continues to claim there is no money and it looks like it may not be getting developer contributions to pay for much needed infrastructure to help surrounding roads cope with the extra demand.
Concerns remain about flooding and sewage. The Environment Agency has contradicted what Thames Water say is possible to deliver in terms of sewage infrastructure. The Council said they will take Thames Water at their word that they can deliver it.
Reading University says, the Hall Farm planning application won’t be decided until this plan is determined by inspectors, and the council expects this public consultation next spring. Yet public comments on the current planning application are due by 16 January 2026.
Residents must submit comments on the application as soon as possible. Make sure your voice is heard. The sooner comments are submitted, the sooner the Council can consider them during the process of evaluating the plans.
The Examination in Public of the draft Local Plan was robust, and I was pleased to play a part as a ward councillor and the Wokingham Borough Conservative Leader in making the planning inspectors aware of the flaws in the Liberal Democrats’ plans. We await the inspectors’ verdict.
