Resident's dismay to Jealott's Hill opposition email

That’s the message from a Warfield resident and objector to plans for 2,000 homes in the countryside after she was met with an automatic response from a top councillor.

Jane Neale was joined by around 240 others who emailed ten councillors representing the northern parts of Bracknell Forest in urging them to oppose the plans, which have been put forward as part of proposals to redevelop the site of chemicals company Syngenta.

Ms Neale received an automatic response from Binfield-with Warfield councillor John Harrison, however, which appeared to blame residents for causing a slow-down in email responses from the elected member.

READ MORE: Plans for homes at Jealott's Hill scaled down from original proposals

It read: “Please accept apologies for any delay in replying.

“Due to a bombardment of council email accounts by a campaign group it is impossible to respond to residents who are in urgent need in the usual timeframe.”

Taking to Facebook to show residents the response, Ms Neale said: “Apparently we are a “campaign group” and as such our views don’t matter; we are labelled, dismissed, viewed as the enemy.

A new illustrative desing for how Jealott's Hill will look

“What Councillor Harrison fails to realise is that a campaign group is another phrase for concerned residents who don’t want to see the unnecessary wanton destruction of Bracknell’s Green Belt; who don’t want an unsustainable new town built in the middle of nowhere at a time of climate emergency; who object to thousands more cars on our already gridlocked roads; who know that these houses are not needed as Bracknell has already filled its allocation.

“Members of this “campaign group” are good solid people who would prefer plentiful brownfield sites to be used for development rather than the monstrous green land grab which is currently proposed.”

She continued: “So Councillor Harrison, we’re sorry if we filled up the council inbox with our objections.”

READ MORE: Save Jealott's Hill group gives verdict on plan for 2,000 homes at Jealott's Hill

“We too have an urgent need to communicate with you. Perhaps you would prefer your inbox to be filled with more vital concerns like parking on pavements, dog fouling and overflowing litter bins.

“Councillors will do well to remember that concerned residents (aka a campaign group) voted you all in to represent our interests, and hopefully safeguard our green heritage along the way.”

Councillor Harrison was contacted for comment.

In response, he said: "No slight was intended although the auto-response could have been better-worded.

"The “Save Jealott’s Hill”  is a group conducting a campaign as [the News] has reported.

"I originally attempted to acknowledge in person all the emails, most of which were identical and arrived in the last two days, however, there were nearly a hundred of them and it got too much to cope with on top of [yesterday's] meetings [where the local plan was considered for consultation].

"I can assure residents that I intend to read all their correspondence but it is impossible to write a personal response to each one as I would like to do."

4,000 homes could be built at the site of Syngenta in Jealott's Hill

It was originally claimed that the volume of emails sent to councillors had crashed the council’s email server.

However, a Bracknell Forest Council spokesperson told the News that downtime on the council’s email servers was caused by “a world-wide Office 365 outage that would’ve affected each organisation that has mailboxes in Office 365.”

They added: “This may have coincided with the emails being sent to councillors.”

READ MORE: Jealott's Hill campaigners prepare for homes legal battle

The Bracknell Forest Council local plan -- which contains the proposal to build the 2,000 homes on green belt land at Jealott’s Hill -- was approved for consultation by the council last night (Tuesday, March 16).

The consultation will run from Tuesday, March 23 to Tuesday, May 11.