From the Leader: Why the new Local Plan is vital for the Borough

Wokingham Borough Council’s new Local Plan is now with the planning inspectors who will decide its fate.  

The inspectors have already submitted some initial queries, mainly relating to speed of delivery of new housing.  Once the council has answered the preliminary questions, we will then move to the examination hearings, at which all interested parties, including developers whose sites were not included in the plan, will have the chance to put their case.  When the inspectors have considered all the arguments and reviewed the evidence, they will decide whether the Plan is ‘sound’ and therefore can formally be adopted.

If the new Local Plan is adopted without modification, we can look forward to some important benefits. A new secondary school in the south of the borough, where it is most needed; the opportunity for a reduction of flood risk; a large new country park; more Affordable Homes for members of our community who desperately need them; energy efficient new homes that will save residents money and help them lead healthier lives; the highest level of protection against development in over a hundred Local Green Spaces; areas of Valued Landscapes across the borough where development can be controlled.  

All these and more are within our reach, but only if the new local plan is adopted. 

Despite these many positive features of the new Local Plan, it still has its critics.  Local Plans are always controversial and unfortunately always cause upset and dismay to some existing residents.  I wish that could be avoided, but sadly it cannot be.  We have no choice but to deliver the housing numbers required of us by government and wherever we allocate land to accommodate them will be unpopular with those who live nearby. 

If you are not convinced by the positive features of the new Local Plan, it’s worth remembering that the alternative is infinitely worse.  

If the new Local Plan is not adopted, we will lose the opportunity to proceed on the current numbers we are required to deliver – 748 dwellings a year.  We would be obliged to begin all over again, and formulate another Local Plan, which would have to accommodate the new higher numbers of more than 1,300 a year.  

We would also have to draw up that other Local Plan (which would take about three years) without the protection of an up-to-date Plan.  We would be very exposed during that three-year period to a continuation of speculative development, which we might refuse locally, but would be at high risk of being approved on appeal by the planning inspectorate. Developments won at appeal typically come with less infrastructure obligations than developments approved through a Local Plan. 

I can understand why opponents of Hall Farm hope that if the new Local Plan fails at examination, they will be spared large-scale housing development in their area.  But the truth is that failure of the new Plan will not prevent development at Hall Farm.  A different Local Plan, drawn up to meet the higher numbers, would have to include all suitable major development sites – including Hall Farm – and would still struggle to provide enough sites for 1,300 new homes a year.

For these reasons – positive and negative - adoption of the new Local Plan will benefit the borough.

Cllr Stephen Conway is Leader of the Council, Executive member for Housing, Partnerships and the Local Plan, and Ward member for Twyford, Ruscombe and Hurst