Draft Local Plan Concerns
Published and promoted by Councillor Alan Macro, 17 The Green, Theale, RG7 5DR. Hosted by 1&1 Internet Limited
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West Berkshire Council are consulting on the draft of their new Local Plan. There are several major concerns about this, especially as it relates to Theale:
- The plan has been rushed through so as to meet publicised deadlines.
- Development control policies relating to some of the new proposed development sites, including all those for Theale, are incomplete.
- It proposes to allocate 20,000 square metres of office space in Theale. However, the study that the council commissioned that concluded that more office space was required was carried out before the Covid-19 pandemic. It is likely that once the pandemic is behind us that many more people will work from home all or part of the time. This will reduce the amount of office space required.
- It excludes developments of more than 10 homes from its estimates of the number of “windfall” sites (sites in towns and villages that are not on sites allocated in the plan). Many windfall sites are bigger than 10 homes - Cumber Place and Trafalgar Court in Theale both contain around 30 homes.
- The number of homes allocated is greater than that required to meet the target of building 520 - 575 homes per year. This target requires sites for 1,661 homes to be allocated on top of those previously allocated. However, the draft plan allocates sites for 2,075 homes. That would allow 599 homes per year to be built!
- The number of homes allocated in the plan ignores the up to 500 flats West Berkshire Council wants to build in Newbury at the London Road Industrial Estate that it owns.
- The 170 homes proposed for Theale would be on top of over 440 homes on the western side of Theale that have been given planning permission but not yet built.
- A sustainability appraisal of the the plan has not been completed. This would be likely to show that the development proposed for Theale would be damaging to the environment.
It is important for as many Theale residents as possible to respond to the consultation. You can do that by clicking here. The consultation closes on 5th February 2021.