Today was the last day for contributions to the application for a Scoping Opinion. Once again thanks to everybody who has contributed by sending letters to Wokingham Borough Council.

As before, we were also grateful to those people who shared their letters amongst others on our mailing list. With the variety of people who live in Arborfield there are often different angles on the proposals, and indeed greater knowledge of the history of the site.

One particular letter came from a resident who followed the planning process for the Badger’s Mount development, built on the site of the old Arborfield Brick and Tile Works in the late 1990′s. The letter highlights that this earliest development was called in by the planning inspector over lack of infrastructure and amenities – and was only passed with a number of conditions over access to army facilities – and the latest scoping study indicates that some of these facilities, in the form of the playing fields will be taken away to provide building land for one of the schools, and as the letter points out, access to some other facilities has never been granted.

The report mentioned is a matter of public record, but was produced prior to WBC sharing such documents electronically on their website, as a result we need to apply to the council to obtain a copy. Members of the RAG have already made this request, and are currently awaiting a copy of the report.

The full text of the letter can be found here. Our thanks to the local resident for allowing us to publish it more widely.

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.

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.