Opposition to Speen homes turns up a notch as packed audience attends meeting

Proposals for a 125-home development on lane between Bath Road, Lambourn Road and the A34 have faced strong opposition from nearby residents, not least from plot holders at Station Road allotments which would have to be moved as a result.
The site was earmarked for development in West Berkshire Council’s Housing Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD), created after the council revealed it needed to build 10,500 homes in the district by 2026 to meet demand.
The majority of objections relate to increased traffic on the already congested Bath Road, a lack of infrastructure to support an influx of new residents, including with catchment schools and doctors’ surgeries already full to capacity, and a loss of green space – including fields on which one of the battles of Newbury was held.
Meanwhile, the allotments, which have been located in Station Road for around 100 years, would be located to a site on the fringe of the A34.
However, concerns were worsened when a site on Hill Road - for 40 houses - was put forward, to the surprise of Speen Parish Council who weren’t notified due to it falling into Newbury’s Northcroft ward.
To add fuel to the fire, representatives from Thames Water, which owns the Hill Road site, attended the meeting to answer questions but had not yet conducted detailed reports into some aspects of the potential development.
One of the representatives, named only as Alec, said this was due in part to the public consultation into the DPD - which confirmed the shortlist of sites being considered - being launched over the summer holiday period when many companies are running with reduced staff.
Speen Parish Council chairwoman Caroline Holbrook, who led the meeting, said: “Thames Water haven’t got specific answers to the access, traffic, contamination problems to the water supply...with so little information how can we decide if this site will be appropriate?
“How, constitutionally, can we answer any information that’s put forward by Thames Water to the council?
“If information will be available to the council and we haven’t had a chance to comment on it that’s unconstitutional and there may be grounds for legal challenge.”
While acknowledging that 160 homes for the parish is too many, in particular the 125 houses at the Bath Road site, Ms Holbrook said the parish council was in a difficult position.
“The parish council represents the whole of Speen parish, not just the people who are going to be affected by the developments,” she said. “Not long ago, we did a housing survey and that showed the need for 11 affordable homes in Speen. Then Kersey Crescent came down.
“There are 55 fewer affordable homes than there were. If we now need 66 affordable homes, where are we going to put them?”
District councillor Paul Bryant (Con, Speen), said that more than 4,000 responses to all sites across West Berkshire had been received by the council as part of the consultation.
A further shortlist of sites by West Berkshire Council will be compiled, based on responses it has received during the consultation, and will be presented at a meeting of full council on December 11.
If approved, a seven week consultation into the sites will be launched, the responses of which will be sent directly to the planning inspectorate.
A final list will be submitted to the secretary of state for consideration in April.