The public exhibition is now open in the community centre. We were pleased that a crew from BBC South were able to attend and report on the exhibition.

However it is a disappointment that despite this being a public exhibition, and the many statements about welcoming public comment representatives of Defence Estates asked the BBC reporter to leave and denied ITV permission to film at all because the exhibition was being held on an MoD site.

Look out for the report on BBC South tonight.

The AG-RAG Steering Group would like to bring you up to date on the latest news re the development plans for Arborfield:

1. The MOD are pressing ahead with development proposals

As you may have seen in the press and heard on the radio this week, the MOD announced they intend submitting a formal Planning Application to Wokingham Borough Council in January 2011 to starting building a huge new development in Arborfield in 2011. It will not be finished until 2026.

2. The size of the proposed development and the loss of scores of acres of green fields is totally unacceptable

While AG-RAG accept the need for some new houses and would support a suitably sized development on brown field land if/when the MOD have physically left the garrison site itself, we remain vehemently opposed to the scale of the proposed development and to the loss of huge swathes of green fields, open spaces and sport pitches all around us.

3. There is still complete uncertainty as to whether the MOD will stay in Arborfield or move out

Although the plans to move to South Wales have been axed, it’s still not clear if the MOD will remain in Arborfield or move elsewhere. AG-RAG’s firm view is that until the MOD have not only said they will leave the site (after all, they’ve been saying for the last 20+ years that they would be leaving), but they have actually left it and switched all the lights off, that no development should start. Otherwise, residents could be left with the worst of all worlds – a huge new development, our green fields and open spaces gone, the MOD still on site, and insufficient profit generated by the developers to enable them to fund improvements to the roads, sewage, water and other infrastructure required to support all the new houses and cars.

4. Public Exhibition

The MOD will be holding a public exhibition on in the Garrison Community Centre (off Princess Marina Drive) on Thursday 9 December between 12 mid-day & 8pm and on Friday 10 December between 8am & 2pm. They have told us that they have sent letters to each household in the area inviting you to the exhibition, although we know many of these letters have not yet arrived.

5. AG-RAG Believes the Exhibition Will Be Misleading

AG-RAG has seen an early draft of some of the exhibition material and believe it highly misleading. For a start, if the MOD really wanted to hear the views of all local residents, the exhibition should have been held over several days, including a week end, and not during 1 1/2 working days. Furthermore, the MOD will only be talking about the development on the land they own around Arborfield. Another consortium will be submitting a separate Planning Application for the land they own (essentially from Hogwood up to near where the Community Centre is).

6. AG-RAG Fact Sheet

Because of the misleading nature of the exhibition, the AG-RAG Steering Group is preparing a fact sheet to counter the MOD’s claims. We plan to hand out a copy of this factsheet to everyone who goes to the exhibition. YOU could help us please by giving up an hour (or more) of your time to hand out the newsletters. If you can help please let me know the hour timeslot(s) you could hand the newsletters out.

6. It’s Crucial YOU make your views known

The MOD are giving residents until Friday 7 January 2011 to make our views known. It’s crucial that you make your objections and other comments known to the MOD by this date.

So, in summary, the MOD are pushing ahead with their plans for a huge new development which the vast majority of Arborfield residents do not want, need or support. We believe NO development should start until the MOD has not only said they they will leave the site but that they have physically left it! Even then, no development should start on green fields and other open spaces until the brown field land where the existingh army buildings are, has been exhausted. AG-RAG believes the exhibition later this week is meant to mislead us so we are preparing a fact sheet with the true situation. You can help by not only making your views known to the MOD but by sparing an hour of your time to hand leaflets out to those people who go to the exhibition.

Thanks & Regards,

Martin Rutter

Chairman, Arborfield Garrison – Residents Action Group

You may have noticed on our recent newsletter that the date of the Wokingham Borough Council Executive meeting at which the Executive will discuss our responses to the Strategic Development Location Masterplans has changed – it will now be held on 3rd June, at 7:30pm at Shute End. Please note the date as this is a vital meeting at which to make our presence felt as this is when the governing executive make the decision as to whether to adopt the masterplan document.

As local residents we are each entitled to ask a question of the executive, which includes our own newly re-elected councillor Gary Cowan, so it is important that we take this opportunity. If you need a reminder of the promises that Gary made during the election, they can be found in his campaign literature.

As both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat national manifesto documents included promises to abolish the regional housing targets that were being blamed for the scale of building at Arborfield, it was no surprise that the coalition document contained the promise to return planning on housing matters to local authorities – see section 4 of the document. As such, our local executive will soon be the ultimate decision making body on how much house building occurs and where it is built, therefore it is important that we make our feelings clear about building at Arborfield.

Other important dates to note are 25th May, at 7:30pm at the Village Hall, which is the twice postponed parish meeting. Again this is an opportunity to ask our Parish Councillors what they are doing to influence the building plans for Arborfield.

We are also gathering at 6:30pm on Friday 28th May for a photo call with our local newspapers as we post letters to David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Eric Pickles (the Secretary of State for Communities) and Liam Fox (the Secretary of State for Defence), to urge them to quickly implement the promise to abolish the regional housing plans, and also to ask what they intend to do with Arborfield in the newly announce Defence Spending Review. We would like as many people as possible to be present for the photo call.