Woolton Hill wildlife oasis becomes mudbath as developers move in

A WOOLTON Hill paddock where wildlife and nature once flourished in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, this week became a mudbath, after diggers moved in to level the site for housing.

Villagers vigorously opposed the development of 49 houses in Harwood Paddock, but lost the battle when plans by Bloor Homes were approved on August 27 this year.

A concerned villager, who did not want to be named, this week described the site as a ‘mudbath’ after bulldozers moved in amid heavy rain.

Graham Dick, chairman of East Woodhay Parish Council’s planning committee, pointed out that planning permission remained subject to the provision of adequate drainage and sewage disposal by Thames Water.

Mr Dick added that the parish council was concerned about the development itself, and said: “There will be inevitable, but unavoidable, associated disruption during its construction, especially to residents of Woolton Hill, already impacted by a variety of other building operations.

“There is unfortunately a sad inevitability that any initial ground preparation for such a major development will be disruptive and subject to prevailing weather conditions.

“We can only trust this will be for a limited period only as the building process progresses.”

Assurances had been sought from Bloor Homes that site construction traffic would avoid the A343 junction, the already congested route past village schools and a play area, and through the main body of the village.

Mr Dick added: “While it is undeniably unpleasant for any part of the village to endure such a construction in its midst, the parish council believes every effort should be made to keep additional traffic past the schools and play areas to a minimum, especially during school term.”

Bloor Homes, he said, had confirmed they would direct all site traffic to access and leave the site via the Wash Common/Station Road approach to Tile Barn Row.

“If any transgress they will be turned away from site with instruction to exit by, and only return via, the prescribed route,” said Mr Dick.

He added some road parking would be necessary in the early stages, but as soon as a suitable area had been cleared, the parking of vehicles relating to the site would be restricted to the site itself, to avoid blocking the road, with the parish council closely monitoring the situation.

Mr Dick continued that the edges of lanes in the village were being churned up, but pointed out this could have been caused by other vehicles passing each other, for example converging school buses, rather than due to heavy construction traffic.

“How much is due to them (construction traffic), or passing traffic, it’s hard to say,” he said.

At 4pm when work finished at the site, he said one or two construction workers had been spotted on the road outside the site clearing up any resulting mud.

“At the moment, the construction company seems to be doing everything they can to keep it under control,” he said, adding this included complying with a request from the parish council for construction traffic to avoid a narrow bridge, situated on Ball Hill Road when driving to/from the site.

Bloor Homes were unavailable for comment as the NWN - sister paper of Newburytoday - went to press.