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Cris LancasterWokingham Borough CouncilPO Box 157Shute EndWokinghamBerkshireRG40 1WR27 July 2011Dear Mr LancasterI am writing in response to the public consultation on the draft Arborfield Garrison SPD andthe draft Infrastructure Delivery and Contributions SPD, which detail plans for a new townto be built south of Arborfield.I support the principle of re-developing the old Garrison site “behind the wire” when (andonly when) the MOD have left, but the plans for a development that sprawls across thegreen fields between Arborfield and Eversley are poorly thought out.Your plans are flawed in so many ways, but I intend to focus mainly on the issues thataffect me directly as a resident of Eversley.My objections are as follows:

Wokingham Borough Council has failed in its duty to consult local residents

I live on The Street in Eversley, which is a Conservation Area, almost exactly a mile fromthe southern boundary of the Arborfield SDL. I live closer to the SDL site than the vastmajority of Wokingham Borough residents.Wokingham Borough Council claims that “extensive up-front consultation has taken placeand views have been taken into account” but this is simply not true where the residents of Eversley are concerned. Our views are not represented in your “Statement of CommunityViews”.You claim to have done more in terms of consultation than is legally required. This may bethe case for residents of Wokingham Borough, but residents of Eversley, who will be directlyimpacted by 15 years of heavy construction traffic and traffic from the new development,have been ignored.If I lived a mile to the north of the proposed development, I would have received copies of “Wokingham Borough News”. I would have been invited to two community workshops inJune and July 2009, and a 6 week exhibition in the autumn of 2009. I would have beeninvited to respond to the formal consultation process which led to the adoption of the CoreStrategy in 2010. Instead, residents of Eversley have had to find out about the Arborfielddevelopment for themselves, only to be told that it is too late to challenge the principle of building a new town of 3,500 houses a mile from our doorsteps.

Wokingham Borough Council has a clear legal duty to consult local residents, and in thecase of Eversley has obviously failed to do this. Writing a letter to our Parish Council andCounty Council does not equal “extensive and up-front consultation”.As a result the draft SPDs currently out for consultation are fundamentally flawed in thatthey do not take into account the views of the local community of Eversley, which will bedirectly affected. Wokingham Borough Council should not and must not adopt the SPDswithout a further period of consultation, to include the views of the community of Eversley.

2) Wokingham Borough Council has not consulted properly with neighbouringauthorities

Planning Policy Statement 3 makes it clear that planning authorities have a duty to consultwith neighbouring authorities and to work collaboratively with them.Discussions are only now taking place with Hampshire County Council regarding trafficissues, and this is only happening as a direct result of queries and complaints fromHampshire residents. I understand that Hart District Council is lodging a strong objection toyour plans, as it has not previously been consulted. This is not good enough. Thedevelopment at Arborfield will have a direct impact on the everyday lives of hundreds of residents of Hart and Hampshire.I believe that Wokingham Borough Council has failed in its duty, outlined in Planning Policy3, to consider the cross-border impact of development and to consult with neighbouringauthorities. The consultation process and the adoption of the SPDs must be halted untilproper discussions with Hampshire County Council and Hart District Council can beconcluded, and outcomes incorporated in a new draft SPD.

3) No mitigation measures are included for the A327 through Eversley

The only route south from Arborfield towards the A30 and the M3 is the A327, which passesthrough the historic Conservation Area of Eversley Street. This is the route used byhundreds of Arborfield residents every day, and the road simply cannot cope with the extratraffic generated by building 3500 extra houses, schools and a supermarket.The A327 is already struggling to cope with the existing volume of traffic which at peaktimes averages one car every 3 seconds, making crossing the road incredibly difficult. Thereare no pedestrian crossings and in some places no pavement as the road is too narrow. Towalk my daughters to pre-school, I have to push their buggy in the road, into the oncomingtraffic.At three points, within 500 metres of one another (Bonney’s Yard, Eversley Bridge and thecorner by the Tally Ho pub) the road is too narrow for two HGVs to pass one another, oreven for one HGV to pass a van coming the other way. Heavy traffic regularly mounts thepavement. If this is the route you intend to use for construction traffic and deliveries to thesupermarket and businesses based on the new development (and it is currently the onlyroute to/from the A30 and M3), you should be aware that two of your lorries, buses or vanswill not be able to pass one another without driving on the pavement, endangering life. Thisis NOT a suitable access route for your new development.

There are plans in the SPDs for a by-pass around Arborfield Cross (at an indicative cost of £9 million) and a relief road for Shinfield (at a cost of £13 million) and yet there are

noplans whatsoever

to mitigate the affect of increased traffic on Eversley.Why? A relief road for Arborfield Cross has been a key element of the proposals for manymonths, but if a relief road is deemed necessary for the Conservation Area of ArborfieldCross, why has a relief road not even been considered for Eversley?If Eversley and Hampshire had been considered and consulted before now, would the EIPInspector not have endorsed plans for an Eversley by-pass, as he endorsed similarmeasures for Arborfield?If mitigation measures for Eversley are not included in the SPDs, BEFORE ADOPTION, it willbe too late to address this issue.Wokingham Borough Council cannot and must not adopt the draft SPDs until measures tomitigate the effect of increased traffic on Eversley, particularly to route heavy traffic awayfrom our historic village centre, have been included in the plans.

4) No measures are included to protect the Conservation Area of EversleyStreet

The foreword to the Arborfield SPD states that development must not “harm thecharacter of existing communities”. You also say “the Council aims to protect andenhance the very good quality of life enjoyed in the Borough” and to “integratedevelopments with existing communities”.Eversley Street is a Conservation Area including a large number of historic listedand locally listed buildings, located very close to the busy road. Many of thesehouses are already being damaged by the heavy traffic using the A327, and anyincrease in traffic levels (especially heavy construction traffic) will cause irreparabledamage – both to the historic environment and to private property.Any increase in traffic will damage everyday life in the village, making it impossiblefor us to cross the road safely, sit in our gardens, or open our windows.By failing to consider the impact of additional traffic on Eversley, WokinghamBorough Council is not only contravening numerous planning policies but also yourown stated aims.

5) No details regarding “Improvements to transport capacity along the A327”

Policy CP18 of your Core Strategy sets out key requirements for the development of Arborfield Garrison, including

“

improvements to transport capacity along A327”. TheGovernment Planning Inspector made it clear that improvements to the A327 were a keycondition of the plans being approved. The Infrastructure Delivery and Contributions SPDagain makes reference to “improvements to transport capacity along the A327” at anindicative cost of just £300,000.But what are these improvements to the A327 going to be? No details are included in theSPD, making it impossible to comment fully on the plans.