Reading Golf Club have now submitted a new application to build 257 homes on the part of the golf course within Reading Borough Council’s area. The first plan was submitted to the Council in June 2020 and, following a public consultation when over 2,000 residents voiced their objections to the building of 260 dwellings, the application was withdrawn.
Initial guidance on making an objection can be read here →
Changes to the withdrawn plan
The revised plan bears remarkable similarity to the original submission. The main changes from the original plan have so far been identified as follows:-
A reduction of the number of dwellings from 260 down to 257
122 trees to be removed from the land, an increase of 4.
A reduction in the area of public space to 3.51ha. Down from 3.57ha.
No consideration of 2000+ objections
The new application makes no changes whatsoever to the objections raised by residents and Community Groups (CADRA, EGRA, Caversham Globe etc.) to the original plan. The traffic congestion and pollution will continue to increase, school places will be at a premium and the pressure on Doctors' surgeries will be untenable. In short, the health and welfare of adults and children alike will continue to be threatened.
It has never been adequately explained why the first application was withdrawn by the applicants, although the Golf Club have indicated that they required more time to address the responses to the consultation with the public. Reading Borough Council have announced that they are not prepared to carry over the objections to the original plan and that residents are once again required to register their objections to what is, in effect, a similar proposal.
What about the Reading Local Plan?
The Reading Local Plan, prepared at an estimated cost of £720,000, was adopted by the Council in November 2019 following a vigorous inspection by a Government appointed Inspector. A small part of the golf course was included in the plan and, during the consultation period, a proposal by Reading Golf Club to increase the area for inclusion was firmly rejected. This latest application completely ignores the Local Plan and shows a cynical disregard for the time and money spent on this by residents of Reading and the Council.
The proposals by the Golf Club to open up their land within South Oxfordshire to public access are considered to be virtually worthless given that the likely medium-term strategy as stated by the previous Chairman is to build on the whole of the land owned by the Club. Attempts to include the land in the South Oxfordshire Development Plan have failed so the Club had no alternative but to put in place a temporary recreational facility which is almost certainly doomed to fail.
KEG will be strongly opposing this unwelcome and unnecessary application which, if approved, would result in the loss of precious green space and be detrimental to the Community as a whole.
The council documentation can be read at;
http://planning.reading.gov.uk/fastweb_PL/detail.asp?AltRef=210018
