PLANS to build 2,000 homes at Sandleford Park caused controversy as they went on display to the public at the weekend.
The area has been earmarked as a reserve site for housing as part of West Berkshire Council’s Core Strategy for 10,500 homes to be built by 2026, and may need to be developed if other proposed sites across the district fall through.
More than 120 people attended the exhibition at Newbury Town Hall, which the director of WYG Planning and Design (the company commissioned by the Sandleford Park owners to promote the site), Martin Hawthorne, said would inform the public of where the housing would be situated and which land would be given over as public open space.
Mr Hawthorne said that he would be happy to see the site leapfrog Newbury Racecourse as the council’s first choice.
In 2000, however, a government inspector recommended that plans for 1,800 homes at the site be scrapped after he ruled it would cause substantial harm to the attractive open countryside and increase traffic on the A339.
Mr Hawthorne said that the inspector’s comments had been taken on board and the housing would be built to the north and west of the site, and not visible from the A339 adjacent to St Gabriel’s School.
That land, he added, would become a country park and the new development would be accessed from two new junctions from Monks Lane.
Talking about the exhibition, he said: “Even people who came along dead set to give it to us with both barrels went away as happy as they could be.”
Some people disagreeed, including Wash Common resident Mike Rickett, who said: “Although they say the infrastructure is there, it isn’t. Monks Lane is already queued up and now they are talking about 2,000 more homes. We are living in cloud-cuckoo-land.
“This is one of the nicest parts of Newbury and I wonder if this is becoming a preferred site, not just a reserve site. It’s a real worry.”
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said that she was concerned about the effects the development would have on schools.
Mr Hawthorne said his company would now use the comments to consult with local stakeholders as they add more detail to the plans.