Aeberfeld

WARNING! The views expressed in this Blog Post are the Authors own and do not represent an official change of stance from SOLVE Hall Farm towards building houses at Hall Farm. This is just an IDEA being put forward for further discussion ;-)

A simple idea should be able to be communicated in a single, short statement, so here we go:

The UoR have a commitment to sustainability and for many years have taught agriculture. They are proposing an "Eco Valley" Country park, along the River Loddon, at Hall Farm. They are interested in keeping an interest in the country park for research and educational purposes. My idea is to create a complimentary Eco Village. The Eco Village would be dedicated to the ideals of the circular economy, sustainable farming and community.

How will this work with the already proposed Loddon Garden Village, and how will it work under the control of a group committed to fighting the imposition of houses at Hall Farm, such as Save Our Loddon Valley at Hall Farm (SOLVE Hall Farm)? That is what I hope to explore further in this blog post. It is here I also fear loosing some supporters, as I know how opposed many of you are to building ANY houses at Hall Farm, never mind the 3,830 currently proposed for the "Loddon Garden Village", but please, bear with me while I try to put some flesh on the bones of this idea, and remember: IT IS ONLY AN IDEA AT THIS POINT, BUT PERSONALLY I THINK IT IS AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME.

Let me share a few supporting ideas that are beginning to emerge as a consequence of recent "Stakeholder" meetings hosted by the University of Reading (UoR).

• The bridge over the M4 and the spine road connecting it between Observer Way to the west of the site and Lower Earley Way to the North of the site needs to be built at the beginning of the project, not after 1,500 houses have been built and sold, as currently proposed. The money for this could come from a loan from Homes England. This will alleviate the grid lock on the existing roads around the site, that is already dire and will be worse once construction starts and homes begin to be occupied.

• The other connection from the spine road (running through the centre of the site) to Hatch Farm Way in the East also needs to be built at the start of the development. I think this is already part of the plan as the parcel of houses on that side will need this access route.

• An integrated public transport system is required, not just an improved bus service with better paths for cyclists and walkers. In particular a public transport connection is needed to local trains. As welcome as improved bus services would be, they would still use the same roads as the cars do. Unless we are somehow going to create new bus lanes from the development site to the railway stations at Winnersh, Wokingham, Reading or Twyford, this will require some innovative thinking and I will return to this subject in another Blog, but for now, if the buses are to work then AS A MINIMUM THE NEW SPINE ROAD AND M4 BRIDGE ARE ESSENTIAL.

• An INDEPENDENT MONITORING OFFICER should be appointed to co ordinate the delivery of commitments made for infrastructure. It is not enough to say this will be done by Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) because, as it says in the previous blog, WBC have long lost the trust of local residents and their representatives at the Town and Parish level.

• IF this development is to be considered acceptable by the LOCAL residents then there has to be a CAST IRON GUARUNTEE THAT NO MORE THAN THE PROPOSED 3,930 HOUSES WILL BE BUILT AT THIS SITE. That is still a huge number of houses, and it comes on top of the houses already built locally, for example at Arborfield Green and Shinfield, plus all the new speculative developments being foisted on us under the "Tilted Balance" brought about by Wokingham's lack of a 4 year land supply. (See this blog post for more on this). The best way to protect the as yet undeveloped land around this site from development later on is to put it into community ownership.

• Therefore, the land identified as "Retained Agricultural Land" and shown in pale yellow on the map reproduced below should be put into the hands of a COMMUNITY TRUST.

This is an idea I have had in the back of my mind for some time now, but which I now feel has sufficiently "fired me up" to put together a proposal for a "Community Ownership Fund" with this organisation: https://plunkett.co.uk/. I think it dovetails nicely with the ideas we first proposed at one of our very early public meetings. Around 40 of us met at Arborfield Village Hall and brainstormed ideas for "Alternatives to houses at Hall Farm". It became the foundation of a document we later delivered to UoR. I think it is time to resurrect that document, but with a subtle change. The original proposal was INSTEAD of the houses. My suggestion here is we do this ALONGSIDE the houses, WITH THE IMPORTANT CONDITIONS OUTLINED IN THE BULLET POINTS ABOVE.

The land shown here as "Retained Agricultural Land" would be community owned and would form the basis of the proposed Eco Village. Here are some final thoughts:

Once upon a time there was an Anglo Saxon Village nearby called Aeberfeld (or so it says in Beatrice M. Simonds history of Arborfield and Newland). Roughly translated this means "The enclosure belonging to Aeber". What about calling the "Eco Village" Aeberfeld and the Community Trust set up to manage the enterprise Aeber?

Too much? Ok, get back to me with some alternatives, but give the IDEA some consideration?

Written by Roderick Paul Stevens. Posted 19/07/2025. Map provided by University of Reading.

Link to the "Alternatives to Housing" document submitted to UoR HERE.