Pleased this will be heard in court of law

LAST week’s decision by the High Court to allow a judicial review into West Berkshire Council’s (WBC) plans around Monks Lane Sports Hub highlight the serious nature of the situation and I for one am very pleased these events will now be reviewed in a court of law, rather than the kangaroo court of WBC executive committee meetings.

To recap this debacle:

2015: WBC announced plans to close and demolish Faraday Road football stadium.

2016: WBC announced they had no obligation to replace the football stadium and indeed would not replace it.

2018: WBC evicted the local football team and closed the football stadium to fulfil an obligation to its property development partner St Modwen. 2018: The development agreement with St Modwen was found to be unlawful by the Royal Court of Appeal and subsequently scrapped.

2018-2022: WBC set about systematically destroying the football stadium.

2019: WBC admitted they did have a legal obligation to replace Faraday Road football stadium and set about looking for alternatives.

2020: Monks Lane was identified as a replacement football ground 2021: A planning application was submitted for Monks Lane, but realising it was too small to meet the planning criteria of ‘like for like’ replacement, WBC made a last minute change to the application to submit it as not a replacement for Faraday Road. WBC then awarded itself planning approval for Monks Lane as a standalone pitch, not a replacement for Faraday Road.

Within 24 hours of awarding itself planning approval for Monks Lane, West Berks executive voted to spend £3.51m on building

Monks Lane as a replacement for Faraday Road.

Of the five Conservatives that voted to approve the planning application as a stand alone pitch, three of them sat on the executive committee that the very next day voted to spend £3.51m as a replacement.

Furthermore, from 2018 to the current day WBC have flat out refused to allow any organised children’s football at Faraday Road.

What a disgraceful, despicable and outrageous way for our elected officials to behave.

Councillors MacKinnon, Woollaston and Doherty, along with the rest of the executive cabal should be ashamed of themselves and totally embarrassed about their actions.

I am sure the judicial review will prove their shameful actions once and for all

LEE MCDOUGALL

Newbury