200 home plan for Aldermaston Court is 'unsustainable'

Residents speak ahead of public exhibitions

ALDERMASTON residents have hit back over a developer’s plans to restore Aldermaston Court.

Last week, the Newbury Weekly News was invited to hear Praxis Holdings’ latest plans for the 17th-century manor house and grounds.

The developer, which purchased the historic manor house and 140-acre estate for £4.7m in 2014, wants to convert the house into 23 apartments.

But it claimed that 226 homes would need to built in the grounds in order to fund the restoration.

Praxis is also looking to demolish office buildings constructed in the 1980s by cement manufacturer Blue Circle – Portland House and Oxford House – in order to restore the historic setting of the estate.

The developer also revealed that residents could view the proposals at two public exhibitions, to be held next week.

However, responding to last week’s article, Peter Faulkner said that villagers were very disappointed that the first they heard of the exhibition was via the NWN article and not from Praxis first-hand.

He said: “This is typical of the inconsiderate approach with which they have carried forward their proposals so far.

“Praxis are hiding a huge and unsustainable 200-house development behind the pretence of enabling historic preservation of Aldermaston manor house.

“If they really cared about preserving history and culture they would think more about the impact on a village community that has been around since the Domesday book.. but unfortunately Praxis only want to turn a quick profit from something they snapped up cheaply during the recent recession.”

The chairman of Aldermaston Parish Council, David Shirt, also expressed his disappointment that Praxis had given less than two weeks notice for the exhibition.

He added that if the developer had approached the parish council sooner, it could have worked with it to ensure the event was adequately advertised.

Mr Shirt said that the parish council would hold a meeting to discuss the plans once they had been submitted.

Recognising the urgent need to restore the manor house and grounds, Mr Shirt said he had no problem with converting the building into flats.

He also said he would support converting Portland House into flats if they were proposed.

However, he was concerned that more than 200 houses would treble the size of the village, which would struggle to accommodate them.

“The question for us all is whether this is an appropriate price to pay for the maintenance of the manor house and grounds,” he said. “I believe many local people believe it is too high a price.”

Head of development at Praxis, Helen Rainsford, said that the company had sent out more than 1,000 invitations to the exhibition and that even more people had been made aware via the NWN.

She said: “It was not our intention for the article to appear in advance of the invitations being issued and we apologise for any upset caused.

“Praxis does take public opinion seriously which is why we are holding a further exhibition in advance of the submission of the planning application.

“We also provided an update to the parish council and residents at a meeting in December at which attendees were told that an exhibition would be held in February.”

Mrs Rainsford said that the housing proposal in order to restore the manor house would be explained at the exhibition, as would the enabling development process.

The exhibitions will be held in the library at Aldermaston Manor on Thursday, February 25, between 3pm and 6pm and on Saturday, February 27, between 10am and 1pm.

Enquiries can be sent to aldermastonpark@turley.co.uk