A major project to build 2,500 homes to the east of a Berkshire village has sparked a debate among residents.

Berkeley Group is seeking to build a whole new community east of Twyford called Twyford Gardens, with the proposed site falling within Ruscombe parish.

The developer’s vision for Twyford Gardens involves building 2,500 new homes, community facilities and a new train station in the countryside.

Twyford Gardens has emerged as a proposed place for development in the Wokingham Local Plan update, which once completed will set the tone for housebuilding in Wokingham Borough until 2038.

READ MORE: Wokingham Local Plan update: residents asked for their views

But the proposal has already received disapproval, with Ruscombe Parish Council laying out objections in an email received from parish clerk Ruth Reid.

The main objection is that Twyford Gardens would be built on greenbelt land, which can only be built on in ‘exceptional circumstances’, or if the land is allocated for development within a Local Plan.

However, the land proposed for Twyford Gardens has not been allocated for development in Local Plan update.

Therefore, Ruscombe Parish Council has argued that there are an abundance of sites which could be built on in Wokingham Borough, which skewers the ‘exceptional circumstances’argument.

Mrs Reid said: “As part of the Local Plan Update Wokingham Borough Council issued a ‘call for sites’ which was more than five times oversubscribed.

“This indicates an abundance of sites available for development without the need for Greenbelt areas and, accordingly, exceptional circumstances cannot exist.”

READ MORE: Twyford 2,500 home plan in doubt due to Local Plan snub

The land is part of the London Metropolitan Green Belt, with the rule of ‘exceptional circumstances’ designed to protect greenbelt established in the national planning policy framework.

In a 2016 review of Wokingham Borough’s greenbelt, it was assessed that the greenbelt considered appropriate and should not be reallocated for development.

Ruscombe Parish Council also argued in a borough-wide public survey, around 70 per cent of all responses were opposed to development of Ruscombe Greenbelt while, and in a parish survey, 95 per cent of respondents indicated they were either opposed or strongly opposed to large scale development within the local Greenbelt.

Furthermore, it has cast serious doubt on the possibility of a new train station being built.

Mrs Reid said: “The great cost of the station proposal would make the wider development uneconomic.

“Without such a station, the site lacks sufficient access and infrastructure hence would fall foul of sustainability rules.”

Defending the scheme, a spokesperson for Berkeley said: “Local authorities can review Green Belt boundaries when they update their Local Plans.

“In this case Twyford Gardens is sustainably located close to the borough’s best public transport links, within an area of exceptionally high housing need and would help to reduce development pressures on the south of the Borough where 97 per cent of homes have been built in recent years.”

READ MORE: Twyford 2,500 home plan going ahead as developers ask for neighbours views

Previously, the spokesperson argued that Twyford Gardens would benefit the borough by providing a mix of private and affordable homes, news space for the community and businesses, as well as land management that would provide a ‘publicly accessible biodiverse landscape’ with walking and cycling routes as well as new woodlands and wetlands.

Berkeley Group is arguing that a new train station would relieve pressure on the current Twyford station, which has not been singled out for  significant investment or upgrade despite it being incroporated into the Crossrail project, which once completed would provide seemless overground and underground train travel.

The plan update is undergoing a consultation, which can be accessed here.

The consultation closes on Monday, January 24.