Twyford residents’ anger as consultation materials fails to arrive on their doormats

THOUSANDS of residents may have failed to receive a leaflet about how to have their say on 290 schemes to build mainly homes in Wokingham borough.

There were difficulties delivering to Barkham, Swallowfield and northern areas including Twyford and Ruscombe, Wokingham Borough councillor Stuart Munro has admitted.

He is leading the consultation which has now been extended a week to February 22 because of the problems.

Twyford and Ruscombe were sent reeling last year by news of a possible 3,500 new homes on Ruscombe green belt. This would double their population.

Many residents at a public consultation session at Loddon Hall, Twyford, last Thursday complained they had not received the Homes for the Future leaflet.

Joanna Muldal of Twyford said: “No one in New Road, Twyford that we know of received the leaflet.

“I put a post on Facebook pages and lots of people said they hadn’t got it.”

Torstein Muldal said it was ironic that the council talked about the importance of residents being involved.

Ward councillor Lindsay Ferris (Lib Dem, Twyford) said many people had reported the non-delivery to him and he encouraged them to attend the Loddon Hall session.

He said: “It’s important to be involved. The threat of the houses has not gone away. We need people’s input, no decisions have yet been made.”

At Loddon Hall Cllr Munro, the executive member for business, economic development and strategic planning, admitted the delivery shortfall.

“In the end we got more than 90% delivered across the borough,” he said.

“It ( the consultation) has been heavily publicised with lots of press releases, posters in parish halls, extra copies at parish and town councils and on Radio Berkshire. You can download it online.

“We heard about non-deliveries in Barkham, Swallowfield and the northern parishes. We’re sending the delivery company out again to where we hear there were difficulties.

“I’m upset and annoyed it happened. A few thousand possibly didn’t get the leaflet but that is going down all the time.”

Deputy executive member for strategic planning Cllr Wayne Smith (Con, Hurst) said the council had tried to compensate for nondeliveries: there are 69,611 homes in the borough.

There was uproar when it was discovered the council had organised master planning for three major sites at Ruscombe, Grazeley and Barkham Square some time ago.

Under the plans around 30,000 homes could be built on these sites in addition to the homes already planned.

But last Thursday Cllr Smith said he and Cllr Munro wanted the biggest ever consultation of borough residents about all the 290+ sites put forward for building by landowners and developers. More sites are still being added.

The idea is to find the best areas out of those sites for about 800 homes a year up to 2036. These sites will inform the Local Plan which will also plan roads, schools, jobs and medical services.

Borough category manager for growth and delivery Ian Bellinger said the council wanted to know whether there should be fewer large areas of housing or more smaller ones. They would also like suggestions for areas to build.

“This is the most helpful stage for us to gather evidence. We have no strategy chosen at this stage,” he added.

Online, residents should go to www.wokingham.gov.uk and search for Local Plan Update to find the suggested sites and also take part in the survey about future development.

Paper copies are at Wokingham Borough Council’s offices.

The consultation finishes on Friday, February 22 at 4pm.