Lib Dems refuse to back Sandleford or Siegecross

The Liberal Democrats on Thatcham Town Council have said that all greenfield sites in the district should be preserved

THE Liberal Democrats on Thatcham Town council have dismissed a motion by the Conservative party to support Sandleford rather than Siegecross for the site for a major housing development.

The motion was put forward after the district council updated its Core Strategy Local Development Framework (LDF) in October, ruling out Siegecross as a potential site for development.

At Monday night's full Thatcham town council meeting, town and district councillor Richard Crumly's (Con, Thatcham Central) proposed that Thatcham Town Council should support West Berkshire Council over Sandleford in Newbury being used for housing.

Town and district councillor, Sheila Ellison (Con, Thatcham North) seconded the proposal.

However, town and district councillor Jeff Brooks (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said that the town council should aim to preserve all greenfield sites in the district, rather then passing the problem to another town.

In proposing an opposition motion, he said: "The major development of greenfield land is not required anywhere in the district given that there are sufficient brownfield sites to accommodate the housing numbers where sites need to be defined at this stage.

"This would include the re-categorising as mixed use of some sites that are presently reserved for employment use only."

He added: "Sandleford is a greenfield development. I don't think that this council should be proposing that a greenfield anywhere should be given up to a magnitude of that development."

He did however, agree with parts of the motion as he also said that he thought Thatcham could not take further large scale development.

Councillors agreed to support Mr Brooks' motion that greenfield land should not be built on, but that some brownfield sites should be re-categorised to include housing development.