Nearly 150 homes could be built just south of the M4 near Reading despite concerns about traffic and the impact on the environment.
Wates Developments has submitted an application to build 148 homes directly south east of the M4 Junction 11 a year ago last February.
The project would involve building homes on six fields between Hayes Drive in Three Mile Cross and the Reading Gospel Hall in Wokingham Borough.
Douglas Bond, the appointed planning agent for Wates Developments, argued the project would create sustainable and affordable homes with generous landscape and ecological improvements.
He also wrote that there has been a ‘severe under delivery’ of affordable homes in Wokingham Borough which the proposed development would meet.
Of the 148 homes proposed 67 (45.3 per cent) would be designated affordable.
However, the project was refused by Marcia Head, head of development management of Wokingham Borough Council in August last year.
One of the main reasons given was that the site has not been designated for development within the council’s Local Plan.
Although the area south of the M4 is designated as a major development within its Local Plan, the fields the site is made up of are situated outside of this area.
Neighbours also objected to the project when it first surfaced last February.
Karen Caruana, who lives in Spencers Wood, called the scheme “madness” raising fear about its impact on local services such as schools and doctors, traffic and flooding.
Shona Steward, also of Spencers Wood, said: “The roads are already bursting at the seams – children can’t get places at schools in their local catchment area.
“It’s meant to be a village not a mini-town. It’s already beyond a joke, let alone adding more homes.”
However, the council’s refusal notice does not mention traffic and transport, instead arguing that existing trees and the rural character of the area would be significantly impacted.
The development would be accessed from Church Lane, sitting next to a plan for a Montessori nursery that was approved in December 2022 (application reference 223232).
Despite the refusal of the plan for the 148 homes, it could still go ahead as Wates Developments has submitted an appeal against the decision to the government’s planning inspectorate.
In a statement of case for the appeal, Mr Bond reiterated that the council has ‘significant housing need and supply challenges’, with the project seeking to address these ‘in a sustainable location and in a high-quality scheme’.
You can view the application by typing reference 233038 into the council’s planning portal, and the appeal using reference APP/X03060/W/24/3354607.
The appeal is due to be decided in a two-day hearing beginning on Tuesday, February 25.
