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Aims of Barkham Development Watch
Potential new developments in Barkham
In August-October 2006 Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) consulted on possible future sites for housing developments in the district.
In the case of Barkham, local landowners and developers submitted the following potential development plans:
● building about 1,100 new houses on 10, mostly greenfield, sites within the parish;
● the redevelopment of the whole Arborfield Garrison site (450 acres), the majority of which lies in Barkham parish, which could involve the building of 2-3,000 houses; and
● building over 800 new houses on 8 sites immediately adjacent to the parish boundaries.
Presently there are approximately 915 households in Barkham (including around 200 in that part of the Garrison which is within Barkham).
Wokingham Borough Council received more individual comments on the potential development plans from Barkham residents than from the residents of any other parish in the district.
Since August 2006, 7 further sites off School Road, Langley Common Road and Barkham Street have been submitted to WBC, involving around 900 more new houses.
Threat to Barkham's semi-rural character
Barkham's response to the consultation on the potential development plans reflected the high degree of concern in the village about the way that the pressure of development is affecting residents' quality of life. This was also highlighted in the responses to the Village Design Statement questionnaire in Summer 2006.
It is evident that the principal threats to Barkham's semi-rural character are:
● the redevelopment of the Arborfield Garrison site;
● new housing developments on greenfield sites;
● over-intensive infill development in existing settlement areas;
● inappropriate commercial development of redundant agricultural premises.
In response to these threats, Barkham Development Watch has been set-up by the BVRA to help the Parish Council in resisting the potentially large amount of new development in Barkham.
Whenever it is decided to organise resistance to a specific development proposal, an email alert will be sent to subscribers, who will be directed to a page on this website containing briefing notes on the proposal and summarising the points of concern.
A rapid communication system is essential because of the short time-frame for commenting on planning applications. In practice, the available time is somewhat less than the statutory 21 days.
How to protect our village against urbanisation
The BVRA Committee believes that as a community we stand a much better chance of successfully resisting new developments and conserving Barkham's semi-rural character if we are organised to resist encroaching urbanisation and to lobby the planning authorities whenever there is an inappropriate development proposal.
To maximise our impact with the planning authorities, we need as many residents as possible:
● to join the Barkham Development Watch mailing list, so that you may be sent an email alert, and
● to send comments to WBC planning department
whenever there is an inappropriate development proposal.
You are welcome to use or adapt the model format of letter (or email) to WBC planning department.
Being on the mailing list to receive email alerts will not involve any commitment, and it will be entirely up to you whether or not to comment on a specific development proposal.