Watership Down housing: ‘The facts’
I FOUND Dr Cooper’s fullpage article in last week’s paper fascinating, but as the executive member for planning at the time of the Core Strategy submission in 2010, I also found the title of the piece ‘Watership Down: ‘Facts and fiction’’ misleading, as it was rather long on fiction and incorrect facts, and had few accuracies. First, the Core Strategy which included Sandleford Park as one of two strategic sites, was submitted and endorsed by full council in January 2010, not February 2012 as stated in the article and it was, as council minutes show, an unanimous vote, not simply a Conservative party majority as again incorrectly stated. Second, Dr Cooper states that in 2010 the council’s own assessment showed Sandleford was not sustainable. Again incorrect. By 2010 there was a fully developed policy, policy CS4 which promoted the site and set a number of development parameters.
Third, he says starting in 2010 the promoters of Sandleford fought back against this (fictional) assessment. Again incorrect. As indicated in my point one above, from January 2010 the core strategy (including Sandleford) was already developed and endorsed and was presented to the secretary of state in June. Indeed the promoters spoke positively for Sandleford at the subsequent public hearings in 2010 and 2011.
I believe Dr Cooper is confusing the promoters’ reactions to the subsequent site Master Plan SPD which was developed much later in 2013-15 and was, amongst other things, intended to ensure the site was developed as a single entity. This aspect was and continues to be objected to by the promoters/ developers. Hence the forthcoming appeal.
Fourth, he states “the council bulldozed the outline planning permission through”. There has never been any outline planning permission granted for Sandleford or any part of it. Finally the tone throughout is extremely political and in particular is antiConservative Government. I would like to point out that the Core Strategy, in development from 2006 to 2010, was guided 100 per cent by the planning principles of a Labour Government. In conclusion, I respect those residents who have genuine non-political planning objections.
Dr Cooper’s article has much to commend the intended fictional part of the article, particularly the bits about the rabbits.
However, the rest would have been much more meaningful if he or someone else had bothered to check the real facts and dates.
All of which can be found on the record at the West Berkshire Council website. ALAN LAW
Conservative councillor West Berkshire Council