Councillors ‘have been ignored’
THATCHAM councillors have said that their concerns surrounding the impact of 2,500 homes have been ignored by West Berkshire Council.
The town council submitted its response to proposals for the north east Thatcham development during a consultation last year.
Six months later and the town council’s response has not been uploaded, whereas responses from neighbouring villages have.
The Liberal Democrat-controlled town council also feels aggrieved that questions from leader David Lister (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) were “shoved to one side” during a Facebook Live event with planning policy manager Bryan Lyttle and then executive member for planning Hilary Cole (Con, Chieveley and Cold Ash).
Town mayor John Boyd (Lib Dem, Thatcham Colthrop and Crookham) said at a meeting last week: “We feel left out because our views have been ignored.
“You would imagine that when you have a consultation like this that the leader of Thatcham Town Council should at least be given an airing in something like that, but he was deliberately shoved to one side.”
Mr Lister received answers to his questions three months later, with Mr Lyttle saying that it had taken longer than expected and that a lot of repeat questions were received from the public.
He added “the issues that Mr Lister raises are sometimes totally contradictory to each other”.
He said: “He talks about net zero carbon, but doesn’t accept that we are going to change from a fossil fuel economy.
“We can’t have the two. There has to be fundamental changes.
“I’m a little bit bemused to hear you say you feel left out of it when we have been working with Thatcham Town Council since 2010 on exactly the issues that are being raised.”
Mr Lyttle said the town council was invited to meetings and activities in February 2020 relating to exercises relating to a strategic growth study for Thatcham.
However, Simon Pike (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said this was incorrect.
He said: “A limited number of councillors were given the opportunity to attend, but they weren’t in the position to prepare in advance.
“They had to react individually to events of which they had no prior knowledge. The council as a collective body was not able to make any input to that event.”
Mr Lyttle said the strategic growth study was part of the evidence base to be submitted with the revised Local Plan.
He said: “It has no other status than that. It’s a demonstration to say that something is achievable.
“It’s also a demonstration of where the infrastructure deficit, if you like, for Thatcham is finally quantified rather than people saying Thatcham hasn’t got enough of x, y and z.
“This is actually a quantifiable piece of work that says yes, there is an infrastructure deficit in Thatcham.”
Mr Lyttle said it was possible that some of the recommendations in the growth study would be put in place through council policies, or through the upcoming infrastructure delivery plan scheduled to be published in October.