Hundreds attend Sandleford Park meeting

Plans have been drafted to build 2,000 homes on Sandleford to form part of the district council’s new core strategy

EMOTIONS were running high as hundreds of people squeezed into Newbury Rugby Club last night (Wednesday) to discuss a potential 2,000 home development at Sandleford Park.

The plans at Sandleford make up part of West Berkshire Council's proposed new core strategy, a key document prepared by the planning authority which has identified a need to build 10,500 homes in the district by 2026.

Outline plans have been drafted to build 2,000 homes on Sandleford, a greenfield site that runs parallel to Monks Lane down to the River Enborne.

The development would be kept to the north and west of the site with the ancient woodland retained as well as Sandleford Priory. It is thought the proposals could also include a new primary school as well as community amenities and an extension to Park House School.

Despite these improvements and a current waiting list of 4,000 for affordable homes in West Berkshire, district councillor Tony Vickers (Northcroft, Lib Dem) told last night's meeting, organised by Newbury Town Council, that Sandleford is the wrong location for such a development.

He suggested building more houses at either Parkway, Market Street, Faraday Plaza or the Institute for Animal Health at Compton.

“The Chamber of Commerce has told us what they need is housing for their employees so why are we protecting employment land when we have 10,500 new homes to build in West Berkshire?” he said.

Mr Vickers also claimed that the planning scoring system was changed during the process of considering Sandleford as a possible location for development.

However, Newbury town councillor, Anthony Pick (St Johns, Con) said: “The decision has been lawfully taken, the analysis is correct, the outline plan is sound and opinions and advice of the planning officers should be respected.”

Mr Pick also argued that a large scale site is more likely to be developed rather than planning to develop lots of smaller sites.

He also said a new core strategy should be adopted as soon as possible otherwise the district could experience a ‘planning free-for-all', a claim that Mr Vickers dismissed, arguing that the district council would still be protected by national planning policy

“No core strategy for the next few months is better than the wrong core strategy for the next 15 years,” he added.

A public consultation into the core strategy is scheduled to end on December 16.

*The No To Sandleford campaign will hold its second protest walk this Sunday starting at Warren Road at 11.30am.