Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

We are now hearing that the Examination in Public of the Local Plan is finally going to happen. While this is good (because after years of waiting we finally get an opportunity for our objections to this plan to be heard) it is bad in that Wokingham have no 5 year land supply and under the rules of the "tilted balance" are finding it difficult to fend off speculative developments such as the one recently approved for School Road in Arborfield.

Stephen Conway, Leader of Wokingham Borough Council expresses the opinion in a recent Wokingham Today column that "By taking advantage of the transitional arrangement for councils at an advanced stage with their local plans, we have bought ourselves about three to four years breathing space to develop in a considered way a further local plan that meets the government’s new housing requirements. During that period, we will be protected from inappropriate speculative development, which is at present causing so much upset across the borough." The rest of Wokingham might be protected but as seen in the example above it is already too late for areas such as Arborfield.

The South of the borough has taken the brunt of development in Wokingham for so many years now, Arborfield and Newland Parish Council are thinking about setting their own Housing Land Supply. When they write their new Neighbourhood Plan they are considering including allocated housing land. This would get us out from under the cosh of speculative, ad hoc development, but sadly it cannot be done quickly enough to save us from the 3,930 houses proposed for the Loddon Garden Village.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding around where we are with the Local Plan, my postman just dropped off a parcel and was surprised to learn it is not yet a planning application. Until the Local Plan is approved as "Sound" by the Inspectors it is by no means certain. But it is not as Cllr Conway claims in his article just being opposed for political reasons.

Traffic has become the number one issue, not just here in Wokingham, but across the wider country. Too many cars on inappropriate roads that cannot cope with the demands being placed on them, made worse by roadworks everywhere you go is causing gridlock on a huge scale. For an organized traffic management system, a combination of strategies like car pooling, increasing public transport, and managing demand is required. As has been pointed out many times on this Blog, Hall Farm is not an appropriate place to put nearly 4,000 more houses because it has no public transport and very little in the way of road networks.

How are the developers of Loddon Garden Village planning to manage this situation?

The devil is the detail; https://www.localplanservices.co.uk/wokinghamlpexamination gives an enormous amount of information that is very hard to follow. A more detailed study is in this "Statement of Common Ground" https://017f5bf8-ff4d-415b-be58-79dae2836c33.usrfiles.com/ugd/017f5b_76dafdfb9a2344b58cb8d2df03485c69.pdf

Look at these maps taken from the paper linked to above, of the roads needing to be built to enable this area to be developed.

by 2030 325 houses, with new roads shown on the map in red. Primarily it will be construction traffic and they will have little choice but to use the Reading Road, Observer Way and Mole Road.

By 2031 725 houses built. Wokingham has one of the highest rates of car ownership in England, with around 91% of households having a car or van available for private use. This high level is attributed to the area's semi-rural character, limited public transport links, and an older population with reduced mobility.

By 2032 1.075 new houses built. Wokingham's car ownership rate is significantly above the national average (around 78%). Limited public transport: This area currently has very sparse or unreliable public transport options. 

By 2033 a total of 1,455 houses will not only add many cars to local roads you will have all the construction traffic. Plus you now have a potential "rat run" from Observer Way to Hatch Farm Way. How many cars, vans and lorries will be choosing to use it, say as a short cut between the M3 and the M4?

Finally, if we are lucky and the money holds up to inflation we MIGHT see the bridge over the M4 that will allow the many thousands of cars estimated to be generated by the 1,810 houses to escape over the motorway, to be met by the many thousands of cars coming out of Lower Earley.

Is this really a SOUND plan?