‘Making fools’ of the council
Jealott’s Hill: Campaigners say homes not needed
A campaign group has criticised a proposal to support a large science park bordering the Royal Borough with
2,000 new homes on the greenbelt – saying this is financially unnecessary.
Syngenta, a multinational agricultural science company, seeks to bring together multiple related businesses on one site in Jealott’s Hill to make a ‘science and innovation park’.
More than 115 hectares of land would need to be removed from the greenbelt.
The site lies close to the Royal Borough border and, as such, the borough’s planning team recently told the relevant local authority, Bracknell Forest Council, that it ‘continues to have strong concerns’ over the development – namely the ‘detrimental impact’ on the openness of the borough’s greenbelt and increases in traffic on roads in Bray.
According to Syngenta, the 2,000 homes would cross subsidise the park to the tune of £68.3m.
But campaign group Save Jealott’s Hill claims that the company is wealthy enough
to fund its park without building thousands of homes on the greenbelt.
The group looked at Syngenta’s financial reports for 2017 to 2020 and discovered that the company paid around $6.8 billion to Syngenta’s owners CNAC Saturn.
“They’re saying they can’t find £68m to make this park but they have been able to make almost a hundred times that in dividends for their shareholders,” said the group’s campaign treasurer Charlie Griffiths.
“It’s literally pocket change to them. They’re making fools of Bracknell Forest Council.”
The campaign group has also criticised a previous comment from the the Jealott’s Hill consortium (made up of Syngenta, housebuilders Taylor Wimpey and building investment company CEG).
A spokesman had said that the company cannot invest millions of pounds of resources into a development which is intended for third party use as well.
Charlie said: “They’ve already said that without third parties, the facility has no future – and that the park is so important, we should give up greenbelt land for it.
“But what they’re basically saying here is, it’s not important enough for them to dip into their own pocket. It’s either worth doing or it’s not. If it is, they can afford to pay for it.”
For Jealott’s Hill plans to go ahead, the land must be allocated for development in the emerging Bracknell Forest Local Plan.
This is subject to an independent review by a Government planning inspector. Bracknell Forest Council intends to submit the plan in late October or early November.
Syngenta has not responded to a request for further comment at the time of going to press.
Bracknell Forest Council has declined to comment.