A developer has been asked to triple the amount it would pay to Reading council if a plan to add 70 more homes to a former golf course gets approved.
The Emmer Green Drive development was approved by Reading Borough councillors in 2022 and 2023, allowing 223 homes to be built at the former Reading Golf Course in Caversham.
Since then, work has started on building the homes at the site off Kidmore End Road.
Earlier this year, housebuilding company Vistry revealed plans to add 70 homes to the development on land immediately north of the site.
This land falls within South Oxfordshire District Council’s jurisdiction, which has consulted Reading council on the project.
Reading councillors debated the impact of the project at a meeting of the planning applications committee.
Councillor Matt Yeo (Labour, Caversham) said: “Because it’s a development in Oxfordshire, from our point of view, it’s purely about the pressure on our services and Reading Borough Council and for Reading taxpayers.
“So you’ve got the increase in traffic, congestion, and the pressure on the environment in the immediate area in North Reading.”
He then suggested that the council should ask for £150,000 in developer contributions from Vistry, rather than £50,000 suggested in a report by planning officer Matt Burns.
Cllr Yeo said: “Those people that move into those houses, where are they going to go for everything?
“They are only going to come into Reading realistically, and the report actually talks a lot about what that’s going to look like.
“Because of the location of it, it’s right at the end of the golf course development, as it is, so most of those people are going to drive.”
Agreeing, Micky Leng, lead councillor for planning, drew distinction between the existing Emmer Green Drive development and the 70 homes extension.
Cllr Leng (Labour, Whitley) said: “When we had the previous application, which was within the borough… we were talking about Reading residents, those that go on to pay council tax, contribute to the town.
“This time, we are talking solely about a residential area of possibly 70 properties, which will contribute nothing.
“Of course, we welcome affordable homes, undoubtedly, some people from Reading may buy them if and when or if they go ahead.”
Opposition councillors argued that all of the impacts of the development would be felt by Reading council.
Cllr Stephen Goss (Conservative, Emmer Green) said: “The impression I get from this is that South Oxfordshire gets the benefits but Reading gets the headaches from this development.”
He agreed that the council should demand £150,000, but questioned how that would be invested.
Planning officers suggested that funding could be used on making The Last Crumb junction safer, which has been the subject of a long-running campaign by neighbours.
Cllr Leng said: “All we know is traffic north of the river is not good, and this isn’t going to improve things.”
He therefore stated the £150,000 request would help the council deal with the long-term impacts of the development.
Meanwhile, cllr Kathryn McCann (Greens, Redlands) argued that the project refused instead.
She said: “There will be a huge extra pressure on the roads from those additional residents, let alone all the infrastructure being taken in and out, the rubbish lorries and all of that, so I would say ideally, we just don’t want it, it doesn’t benefit Reading.”
Ultimately, councillors decided to ask for £150,000 from the developers to mitigate the impacts of the new homes in a submission to South Oxfordshire council at the meeting on
You can view the application by typing reference 25/S1431/O into South Oxfordshire’s planning website.
