Council leader: Scheme is completely implausible

TOWN councillors listed five main reasons for objecting to proposals for 2,500 homes in north east Thatcham.

Councillors described an initial traffic assessment as “a joke” with “no sense of reality about it at all”. Outlining the reasons, town council leader David Lister said the assessment was “completely implausible and incomplete”.

He said that the report implied that there was no congestion on any section of the A4 either side of Thatcham, or approaching Newbury. Furthermore, there was no congestion on Floral Way or the A4 and that there was no reference to traffic flow eastbound from the junction of Floral Way to Pipers Way. Councillors said that the assessment needed to be updated.

The second point covered the lack of an Infrastructure Development Plan associated with the homes and how congestion on surrounding roads would be mitigated.

Mr Lister said the document was supposed to have been published, but had not been made available.

“It’s impossible to verify the claims made in the plan,” he said.

“It possibly indicates that the consultation has been rushed because the evidence is not there to support the proposals.”

He also said that there was little detail in the local plan that directly referenced Thatcham.

Mr Lister said that the consultation covered 250 pages, but the most important information about Thatcham was contained in thousands of pages spread across 60 documents in the consultation portal. Councillors said they felt that sufficient attention to public consultation had not been considered in regards to the disproportionate affect on

Thatcham.

Mr Lister said that a sustainability assessment for the proposals did not reference the council’s environment strategy and net zero carbon motion.

He said it was essential for the document to be updated to reflect the new net-zero carbon policy.

Finally, the town council had lodged an objection to north east Thatcham’s inclusion in an earlier planning document, but this objection had not been registered by West Berkshire Council.

Mr Lister said that comments from other town and parish councils had been included and that the omission was disappointing.

Steve Ardagh-Walter (Con,

Thatcham Colthrop and Crookham) said that it was “absolutely not perfect”, adding that he took the point over documents missing from the consultation.