Fight is on over 75-home Cold Ash and Newbury scheme

Councillors prepare to oppose Coley Farm plans once again

“THERE will be a fight on this.”

Cold Ash councillors are preparing to battle fresh plans for 75 homes at Coley Farm.

Donnington New Homes has lodged a full planning application for the homes, access, parking and a children’s play space at Coley Farm, to the north of Waller Drive, in Cold Ash parish.

Parish councillors raised their objections to the plans at a virtual meeting held on Tuesday, April 14.

Leading the charge, Bernard Clark said: “What the parish council has always believed and stated very strongly is this is no place to have this kind of development.

“It’s rural. It’s a pretty difficult site and it’s in the countryside.

“It’s surrounded by trees and hedges.

“I really don’t understand why this would be a candidate for development at all.”

An outline application scraped through West Berkshire Council’s planning process in 2017, despite strong objections from residents and parish councillors.

Councillors on the western area planning committee went against officers’ recommendation and refused the plans.

But because the council has listed the area as a preferred housing site, another vote had to be cast by members of the district planning committee.

The scheme was passed after committee chairwoman Hilary Cole, who now represents Chieveley and Cold Ash on the district council alongside Garth Simpson, cast her deciding vote.

“Our ward member Hilary Cole, it was her vote that put this through,” Mr Clark said.

“Even then it was right on the edge of not being favoured.”

But with a new make-up of councillors following last year’s elections, Mr Clark said there was no certainty the scheme would go through again.

Outlining the list of objections, Mr Clark said: “It’s rural. This is a hugely urbanising thing in what is a very beautiful rural area.

“It’s not an appropriate site, it goes up and down all over the place.

“It’s not really sustainable, it’s a long way to the shops and has no connection to anything.

“I’m not really convinced they have thought through the problems with flooding on this site.”

Marigold Jaques said that new flood defences put forward in the scheme were being proposed on the limited amount of open space in the area.

She said: “They have put balancing ponds in for drainage, I’m not sure how that’s going to work.

“The open space we have becomes a bog when it rains and anything like this will exacerbate that. Nearby houses are worried about flooding.”

Donnington New Homes said that the scheme would improve safety along Stoney Lane, where access would stem from, and include widening as necessary.

Parish council chairman Richard Marsh said that a lot of hedgerow would be lost because of the widening.

Mr Clark added that travelling north on Stoney Lane was almost impossible because of traffic and the narrow width.

David Silsby said the application was “totally wrong, totally inappropriate development in a beautiful piece of countryside”.

Finalising the parish council objections, Mr Clark concluded: “The stronger our sense of disappointment at this the stronger our chances are it could be turned down.

“There will be a fight on this.”