Slow work on a major new road south of Wokingham could get a boost after a funding agreement with housing developers.

The road – the South Wokingham Distributor Road – is an essential part of a scheme to extend Wokingham.

Some of this major development has already been built – but Wokingham Borough Council says that it has become ‘increasingly difficult’ to find the money to complete the road.

Council documents say that this is ‘due to escalating construction costs in recent years.’

READ MORE: Latest plans for major housing project revealed

Now three housing developers involved in the development have agreed to pay for other facilities – a primary school, a community centre and allotments – to free up some £20 million of council cash.

When complete, the road will connect London Road – the A329 – to the A321 Finchampstead Road in the south. It begins on William Heelas Way - just over the A329 roundabout separating Bracknell from Wokingham - and a section through Montague Park has already been completed.

The latest section will be part of a project to build 1,820 homes south of Wokingham.

Wokingham Borough Council is building the road using money from ‘community infrastructure levy’ funds, collected from housing developers.

However the council had originally agreed that these funds would also be used to build a primary school, community centre and allotments.

Developers have now agreed to build these themselves in planning arrangements known as Section 106 agreements. The idea is that this will allow the council to use more community infrastructure levy money to build the road.

Under the new agreements, the developers will build:

  • A primary school, with two classes per year group, to open once the 300th home has been built.
  • A two-storey community hall, also to be opened once the 300th home has been built.
  • Three allotment sites and a community orchard.

Developers providing the new facilities are:

  • Kingacre Estates, which has plans to build 215
  • Keir Ventures and Miller Homes, providing 1,434 dwellings
  • Charles Church Developments, which could build up to 171 homes

Council documents say that these developers have agreed between them which facilities they’ll each be responsible for building. But the documents don’t reveal who will build what.

The documents say that for the council the ‘key consideration’ is how the facilities will be delivered, ‘rather than how responsibility is shared between the developers’. Documents say this makes it easier to draw up the Section 106 agreements.

Councillors on Wokingham Borough’s planning committee are being asked to approve the new arrangements at a meeting on Wednesday, March 13.

The committee already approved planning applications from each of the three developers in 2021. But the Section 106 agreements must be signed before permission is formally granted and work can begin.