Mixed reactions to plans for up to 250 new homes in Thatcham

Donnington New Homes held an exhibition at the Catholic Hall in Thatcham on Thursday to show people the plans and to get feedback before submitting a planning application.
The firm envisages that the site, to the north of Floral Way and adjacent to Bradley Moore Square, can accommodate up to 250 properties as well as open space, landscaped corridors, flood attenuation measures and space for a new primary school.
James Sparks of Heather Drive said that as someone who lived in the vicinity, he was deeply concerned by the planned proposal.
He said: "Any development along Floral Way would essentially eradicate the locality boundaries between Thatcham and its connections to Cold Ash, Bucklebury and the North Wessex Downs (AONB).
"Bucklebury/Cold Ash would almost just become North Thatcham.
"Even more of a worry to me is the levels of traffic along Floral Way. I personally travel the route from Floral Way to the connecting A4 Bath Road junction as part of my daily commute and regularly queue for 15 minutes at a time.
"On a more personal note, as a regular walker and new father, the safety of Floral Way is of the utmost importance to me. The 40mph speed limit of Floral Way is consistently ignored by many.
"To walk on the pathways adjacent to these roads with my young daughter and family is already a daunting prospect for fear of our safety.
"The addition of a significant number of additional vehicles on the road would be outright lunacy and will only serve to further decrease any safety records."
Thatcham resident, Christopher Shrivell, said that he did not have a problem with the plans as they stood.
However, he said that there could be a problem if this development was built as well as the pre-applciation plans for more than 500 homes at Siegecross.
He said: "The plans themselves seen fair but it's the combination of the both of them.
"It will cause an increase in traffic coming on the A4 and at the moment it can be troublesome at peak times.
"My concern is also the impact it will have on resources, we know the schools are already over-subscribed."
A woman who lives in Dunston Park but asked not to be named said that she had no objections to the plans but wanted to make sure that a roundabout was put on Floral Way at the junction of Foxglove Way to ensure residents were not being held up if the development caused extra traffic.
On the idea of extra houses in the town she said: "I've got teenage children and I want them to live here.
"It will be good if it's affordable housing because some people cannot afford anything else."
Wayne Young (pictured) whose house in Harts Hill Road is right next to the site of the proposed development said that he was "devastated" by the idea that he could be looking at houses rather than open space in the future.
He said: "I'm not happy about that.
"From an environmental point of view It's going to have an impact on flooding and I'm not convinced about the flooding management they are going to be putting into place.
"People on Harts Hill Road are distraught."
Managing director of Donnington New Homes, Mark Norgate, said that there was land provision for a new school on the site but that other external factors would need to be in place for the school to be built - this included more houses being built in Thatcham.
He added that about an extra 1,000 homes in the town would warrant a new school, whether this was on one site or a combination of a couple.
He said: "I would say that generally, the attitude from the exhibition was one of positivity - you are always going to get a mixture of feelings."
The team from Donnington New Homes will now collate all the information from the resident questionnaires filled in at the exhibition.