‘Council leader makes contrasting statements about housebuilding’
RURAL BOROUGH: Arborfield resident disputes green field building stance
AN ARBORFIELD resident is alleging hypocrisy from the leader of the borough council over his development views.
Oliver Jones said that he believes Cllr John Halsall has made contradictory statements about developing on green field sites now and in the past.
However, Cllr Halsall says that his views are consistent and at last Thursday’s executive meeting repeated that he lamented the loss of a single blade of grass in the borough (see page 35).
Cllr Halsall founded the Campaign to Protect Rural Wokingham in 2017, after discovering that Green Belt land at Ruscombe had been proposed for a 3,500 home development.
Mr Jones said: “I think it’s a potential undisclosed conflict that might call the integrity and independence of the whole process into question.”
Mr Jones believes that statements made at the time in the campaign are at odds with the draft local plan update, which proposes developing 4,500 homes on Hall Farm.
In 2018, a statement on the campaign’s website said: “As well as the Green Belt there are other key pieces of land which help to preserve the area’s rural history and prevent the towns and villages from merging into each other.
“Farming is still important here. Allowing the type of ribbon development along the A4 which we’ve seen joining Bracknell to Wokingham would completely change the environment for residents, and we’d become a suburb of Reading, Maidenhead, and possibly eventually London.”
The campaign also addressed congestion and access to amenities.
Mr Jones said that Hall Farm is a perfect example of the nongreen belt “prime agricultural land” referred to back in 2018 as something not to build on.
He said that developing the area would also destroy the area’s rural history and lead to towns and villages merging into each other.
“Surely the Campaign to Protect Rural Wokingham would be swinging into action right now to also oppose Reading University’s Hall Farm plans?” Mr Jones said.
“Residents would be coordinated, petitions set up, experienced planning barristers consulted … just like the campaign Cllr Halsall founded and led in Ruscombe in 2018.”
Cllr Halsall said that the council had to make a choice over housing numbers.
“The choice is not what’s the best choice, but least bad one,” he said.
“The least bad choice is to have a local plan which defends the borough as a whole.
“If we don’t have a local plan which defends the borough as a whole, every single inch of green land in the borough will be built on, with the exception of the emergency planning action zone, including Grazeley, and the green belt.
“Really, from the bottom of my heart, I apologise to people who are going to be affected by this development. I regret that we have to do it at all, remember that the council does not build all the homes, developers do.”
Cllr Halsall said that without a local plan, even more houses would be built in the borough.
“These will be built without any infrastructure payments, they will be built as developers want to build them, in the timescales they want to build them in,” he said. “So it’s completely consistent with my previous stances. Do I wish to build 800 homes a year? No I don’t.
“I regret every blade of grass, every tree that goes in the borough, but we have to accept the world we live in, which is dictated by central government.
“It’s not a Tory government that dictates it; all three parties advocate building homes. The Lib Dems are actually advocating 380,000 homes a year (across the country).
“The letter I sent to Michael Gove explains my view very well, but the current turmoil in Westminster isn’t helpful to the cause. But I have had success.
“The government wanted us to build 1,600 homes a year, I have defeated that. I have a track record of success.
“But, at the moment, we have to accept the least bad option. I regret that and I apologise for that, I’m not really happy with it at all.”