BVRA

Articles from the latest issue can be accessed here

The newsletter is issued 4 times a year and delivered direct to your door.   If you do not currently receive a copy please contact the Membership Secretary to join the BVRA.

The Barkham Village Residents Association was established in 1987.   It came about initially in response to a Planning Application for housing development within the Coombes - a woodland rich in a diversity of wildlife and designated an area of special scientific interest. Planning issues remain an interest of the BVRA.  After the threat to the Coombes subsided, the association continued to contribute to Barkham's community spirit  by running social events and the production of a quarterly Newsletter. There is a more detailed account of our beginnings at the bottom of this page.

Membership
Membership of the BVRA extends to most households in the village. Subscription is currently £2 per year per household which includes all 4 issues of the Newsletter. If you would like to join, contact the Membership Secretary on the link above.

Data Protection Act  
Members are reminded that membership records are maintained on a personal computer. Details recorded are names, addresses, telephone numbers and payment records. The information is used solely for BVRA purposes, and any member is free to see his/her details by contacting the Membership Secretary.

How the BVRA came about....... 

The two people most responsible for its birth were Pam Edwards (the long-time Treasurer) and Christine Thomas (who edited the newsletter for 7 years).   Their thoughts, written for the 50th issue of the newsletter in Winter 1999, are shown below.

It was 1987.  I had just lived through the past 18 months having a building site at the bottom of my garden - not an experience I would recommend to anyone.  Pam and I heard that there was a planning application to build houses on The Coombes.  This is a 67 acre privately owned wood adjoining what is now Bearwood Lakes Golf Course.  Pam's house overlooks The Coombes and they were therefore notified by the District Council of the Planning Application.  We really did feel there had been enough building in Barkham and there were places in Wokingham that would be more appropriate for other housing.  We delivered leaflets around Barkham outlining the planning application asking people to write to the District Council with their views on the proposed development.
We advertised the forthcoming parish council meeting by painting a sheet with "Save the Coombes" and the date and time of the meeting on it and hung it on the fence at the end of Bearwood Road. 

My husband said it made him blush every time he drove past it and I had difficulty getting the marks left by the red paint I had used for the sheet off the kitchen floor. It was at this stage I decided that I was not cut out to be a political activist
The parish council meeting was attended by what seemed like the whole of Barkham, our new village hall was not large enough to hold everybody.  The parish council turned the application down.
After the meeting both Pam and I felt that there must be more that we could do in case this application went further.  We felt that Barkham needed a group of people who were not tied by the rules and regulations as parish councils are: so we called a second meeting to set up a resident's association.  I remember saying to Pam  "What happens if no one comes?!"

"Well." she said,  "We eat the biscuits, drink the coffee and go home".  Whilst we did not have the turnout that the Parish Council had at their meeting we had about thirty people come and out of that twelve who said that they were willing to form a committee. The best person of all was Phil, who was a retired planning inspector.  He said that while he could not serve on the committee, he was willing to advise us on what we needed to do to ensure that the planning application was turned down by the district council and if it went to appeal how best to fight it.

Twelve years on the BVRA has turned into much more than simply a pressure group and hopefully gives its residents a feeling of unity to a rather spread out community.  We have also had a great deal of fun and got to know some wonderful people through it.  Pam continues on the committee as Treasurer, after seven years as newsletter editor I thought it was time I let someone else have a go, and am pleased to say that I think Paul is doing a brilliant job.  I still deliver newsletters to my end of Bearwood Road

The planning application for this enormous development only went to the neighbours.  There was no way of telling Barkham residents.   The Coombes had wonderful wildlife, and the footpaths used regularly by locals.   We therefore printed leaflets to let everyone know, asking them to write to WDC.
We called a public meeting, to which many residents turned up.   There was a proposal at the meeting that we should set up a residents association not just a pressure group to keep villagers informed about what was going on, and a number of people stayed behind to form the first committee of the BVRA.   Phil joined the committee - he was a retired planning inspector.
Barkham Parish Council and WDC turned the planning application down, but the planners appealed, and WDC, BPC and BVRA were present at the appeal hearing and were heard by the inspector. 

 Fortunately the appeal was eventually withdrawn. It would have cost us a fortune to produce multiple copies of all the evidence that we had by now accumulated, but we would have persevered and I am sure that we would have won.
In the subsequent Local Area Plan WDC designated the Coombes as an Area of Special Landscape importance where development was not allowed.
The BVRA has gone from strength to strength, organising local events. It was realised very early on that we needed a Newsletter and so far David Tyrwhitt-Drake, Christine Thomas and Paul Steel have been the editors.  It is recognised as an important way of keeping the village identity and its production is subsidised by the BPC.

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