THOUSANDS of homes are planned for Wokingham borough in the next 18 years as part of the local plan for the area.
Another five thousand homes have been proposed as part of the council’s draft local plan update, which has been approved for consultation.
Most of these come as part of the controversial plans to push ahead with the development of a garden town at Grazeley, where 15,000 homes could go up.
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Cllr John Halsall, Conservative leader of Wokingham Borough Council (WBC), said the development of Grazeley would “protect” the rest of the borough from major developments until 2055 as this would mean building a “carbon-neutral development over a long period of time.”
It means another 18 sites have been selected where 940 homes could be built to make up the council’s housing allocation up to 2036.
But Liberal Democrats councillor Clive Jones said he believes “many more” than the 940 pinpointed will be built as developers win appeals against the authority.
He added: “It will cost the taxpayer a lot of money.”
More than 3,700 of the 4,962 additional homes proposed through the local plan update will come from the Grazeley development, but another 940 will come from sites allocated for residential use.
These include:
- 140 homes at the Reading FC training ground, Hogwood Park, Barkham
- 160 homes at two sites in Charvil
- 150 homes at Bridge Farm, Twyford
- 250 homes at Winnersh Farms
- A further 55 homes at two additional sites in Winnersh
- 92 homes at Station Industrial Estate, Oxford Road, Wokingham.
More than 13,000 homes are expected to be built in Wokingham borough up to March 2036, with almost 7,000 of these already having planning permission.
Another 1,250 are due to be completed, with 2,000 more sites benefitting from their existing allocation without planning permission.
Councillors approved a consultation on Wokingham borough’s draft local plan at a meeting on Wednesday, January 15.
Residents can have their say on where housing goes across the borough by visiting https://tinyurl.com/sbo3fhc
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The consultation runs from Monday, February 3 to Friday, March 20.
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