We are a group of residents of Shinfield and neighbouring areas who are concerned about the poor management of housing development in our borough. We want houses and places that can cope, at prices local people can afford.
Some of us are ordinary residents, and some are current or former councillors. All of us are unhappy with the impact of policies devised by unelected council planners, and we wish to see new ideas adopted instead.
Local representatives of all major political parties have clearly stated their opposition to the Hall Farm scheme, some within weeks of it first being proposed in late 2021:
‘Shinfield Conservatives and Arborfield Conservatives are opposed to the Hall Farm development because we believe our area has already taken too much housing and we are very concerned that the local infrastructure will not cope with the strain of 4000+ new houses. Shinfield South's Councillor Jackie Rance has made her position very clear. She is opposed to the Hall Farm development. I, as a member of both the Shinfield and Arborfield Ward Teams, am also opposed to the Hall Farm development. Both Jackie and I will continue doing all we can to stop further inappropriate development here.’
Conservative councillor candidate David Edmonds on S-O-S-Save Our Villages Facebook, 11 January 2022 ·
‘4,500 new houses planned on the Reading-Arborfield Road.
We believe a garden village (or massive housing estate) in such an inaccessible location is not the right answer. The Lib Dems are calling for developers to build the homes we need in the places people want to live in, not wherever developers want to build. The plan showed little consideration of the traffic problems such a development would make for Shinfield. The problems of flooding, both on the site but also downstream from it, were also largely overlooked… The Hall Farm plan would be a social and environmental catastrophe for Shinfield.'
Lib Dem Shinfield South Report, February 2022
[Labour Councillor Andrew Gray (Shinfield ward) said] … ‘the Local Plan would be damaging to Shinfield, where infrastructure such as roads and education were already under pressure… The balance between suitable infrastructure and housing had not yet been achieved, and development at Loddon Valley Garden Village would exacerbate this’. He warned of ‘greater pressure on school places in the area as people moved into the developments. He was aware of the need for more affordable housing but felt that it should be more evenly distributed across the Borough to strengthen communities’.
Wokingham Borough Full Council meeting minutes 19th September 2024
The problems a Hall Farm development would bring are obvious to anyone who wants to look at the facts on the ground, regardless of party political affiliation. We therefore welcome members of all parties and none to our campaign.
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