Newbury Town Council recommends Greenacre for refusal

Revised applications were put to the council’s planning and highways committee, the first requesting planning permission for Bloor Homes to build 40 detached, semi-detached and terraced houses at the site of the centre, off Greenham Road, following a year of silence since the initial application was lodged.
The second, put forward by Stax Leisure, was to build a new leisure centre on an area of greenbelt land close to the current centre. However, the plans have been met by strenuous opposition, as more than 70 letters of objection were sent to West Berkshire Council from regular centre users, who claim the new facilities fall short of what they hoped.
Site maps indicate that the replacement centre will include three indoor and two outdoor tennis courts, one indoor and one outdoor swimming pool and three padel tennis courts, as well as gym and studio facilities.
Planning agent Steven Smallman claimed that this met demand in the local area and that the new club would be family-orientated.
However, it is the loss of three squash courts that is causing fury among players, who say it would be detrimental to competitive playing in the district.
Newbury Town councillor and member of Greenacres, Adrian Edwards, shared their concerns.
“Why are you going to provide something which is less than what we have got already?” he said. “You tell me which facility in Newbury can provide three squash courts for competition at regional level... because they can’t.”
Member David Norburn said: “Leisure and recreation facilities should be enhanced, not reduced.
The squash activity at Greenacre has been extremely active since the 1980s.”
There was also concern that the centre’s tennis facilities, considered the best in the county, would be diminished under the new plans
Prof Norburn added: “There’s no provision for badminton, the three outdoor [tennis] courts are to be reduced to two, the four indoor courts are to be reduced to three, yet there’s a rather peculiar sport called padel tennis.”
Mr Smallman revealed there was likely to be a 12-month delay between the demolition of the old centre and the opening of the new one, which would result in the “temporary loss of work” for those currently employed at Greenacre.
Members present at the meeting threatened to boycott the new facility if their request for the inclusion of squash courts was not met.
Newbury Town Council recommended the proposal be refused when it goes before West Berkshire Council.
A decision is expected by March 6.

THE developer behind plans for a housing estate on the Greenacre Leisure Centre site has not earmarked any of the proposed 40 properties for affordable housing.
Bloor Homes said that it doubted it would be able to afford to build any.
The planning agent for the firm, Steven Smallman, said that affordable housing provision at the site, off Greenham Road, depended on a yet-to-be-completed viability assessment, which would take into account factors such as land values, decontamination costs and the extent of requested funding, before it could commit to a decision.
He said: “The scheme would provide whatever level of affordable housing could be afforded based on the viability assessment, but given the costs of remediation, etc it is currently anticipated that that could be zero.”
The news is contrary to original plans, which sought permission for 42 homes on the Greenacre site and 18 affordable homes on land adjoining nearby Sawyers Close.
The revised plans show 40 two, three and four-bedroom detached, semi-detached and terraced homes, but no confirmed affordable housing.
This is despite regulations laid out in the West Berkshire Core Strategy Policy, which stipulates that developments of more than 15 dwellings should include at least 30 per cent as affordable housing.
The need for further development in Greenham – where there is already a 1,500-house build at the Racecourse Newbury under way and a further 2,000 homes earmarked for Sandleford Park – was also questioned at a planning and highways committee of Newbury Town Council on Monday.
Creator of the Save Our Great Greenacre Institution campaign group, David Mundy, said: “It filled me with some alarm, the mere thought of the present club being knocked down so a developer can put 40 houses on the site.”
The leader of Newbury Town Council, Julian Swift-Hook (Lib-Dem. Newbury) also questioned its necessity.
He said: “The proposal is basically to extinguish a perfectly satisfactory health and fitness facility in order to build some new houses.”
Adrian Edwards (Con. Newbury) expressed concern over the increase in traffic that the new development would bring.
“Imagine what would happen if we had 40 houses there,” he said. “Imagine the chaos between 8am and 9.30am, and then again in the evening.”
A decision on the application is expected by West Berkshire Council by March 6.