COUNCIL bosses have revealed where they want 10,500 new houses to be built in West Berkshire by 2026.
Newbury Racecourse, Theale and Pincents Hill look set to bear the brunt of major housing developments, while other controversial projects including developments on Newbury's battlefields, the Newbury-Thatcham gap and Kennet Valley Park will not go ahead.
Council planners believe that many of the 10,500 extra homes that Government has decreed must be built can be made up of smaller developments on brownfield land, without the need to back huge estates on the outskirts of the district's towns.
The big projects that look set to be given the go ahead are a 1400 home development at Newbury Racecourse, and 750 homes built in the east of the district, either at Pincents Hill, Theale, a mixture of both, or other developments spread across other villages on the outskirts of Reading.
Three other major developments at Sandleford Park, Siege Cross and surrounding the Vodafone headquarters, will be listed as “reserve sites”, which could be built if the council cannot make up the housing numbers through smaller projects.
Their inclusion in the council's back-up plan indicates that they could be built in the future, if the district is told to build yet more homes after the current Local Development Framework expires in 2026.
The following proposals have been axed altogether:
- 500 homes spread across green field sites in Greenham
- 650 homes at Bowling Green Road
- 1000 homes on the site of the First Battle of Newbury
- 750 homes in the Newbury / Thatcham gap
- 7,500 homes in the proposed Kennet Valley Park
- up to 500 homes at Wash Water
- up to 500 homes in Hungerford
- 500 homes on the site of Denison Barracks, Hermitage, due to be evacuated by 42 Engineer Regiment in the coming decade

Earlier, the council assessed each of these major strategic developments against a check-list of criteria to determine how sustainable they were, including proximity to local shops, schools, major roads, railway stations, and their vulnerability to flooding. The Racecourse development came top of the scoring system.
Now, instead of backing more of these large-scale developments, the council have opted to try to make up the 10,500 extra homes through smaller scale building projects.
Of the total, some 1,747 were already built by March 2008, and another 2,336 had planning permission. Council planners believe that another 1,600 can be built on brownfield sites that are likely to be developed by 2026. A further 2,600 will be made up of smaller development, yet to be determined, of up to 500 homes.
The council still face a lengthy process before it's long term plan is signed off.
A council executive meeting on Thursday is set to agree to the proposals, before a six week period of consultation. The first draft of the Local Development Framework should be published by the end of the year, before yet more consultation.
Next summer, a planning inspector will preside over a public inquiry into the strategy, during which aggrieved developers can object to their pet projects being rejected by the council.
Council officers claim that the decision to back the Newbury Racecourse development in the Local Development Framework will not impact on the decision due to be made on current planning application later this year.
Until the LDF is complete in 2011, planning applications must be judged against current policy, which places part of the Racecourse's proposed development outside of Newbury's settlement boundary.

More reaction and analysis to follow online and in Thursday's Newbury Weekly News.