campaign for fairer housing

Wokingham Borough residents were consulted between late 2021 and January 2022 on  the various planning proposals put forward in the Local Plan. The Council officers produced the results of the consultation eight months later. At that point, 'further analysis' of the responses was promised, but none seems to have been made public, so we're offering our own summary of the Council's response figures. 

There were nine sites in the 2021 Local Plan where 100 or more dwellings were indicated for possible development, including Hall Farm. 

In the consultation, the public were asked whether they ‘agreed’, ‘somewhat agreed’, ‘disagreed’, or ‘somewhat disagreed’ with the proposed site development, or else were ‘neutral’.

The list below shows the nine sites ranked by the percentage of responses rejecting the development proposal for that site. 
 
Residents and community groups responses, by % level of objections:-
 
 Name of proposed site.                                          Percentage of 'disagree' or 'somewhat disagree' responses for this site

Rooks Nest Farm                                                                                                             73
North of Arborfield Road, Shinfield                                                                         65 
Hall Farm / Loddon Valley                                                                                           56
South of Waterloo Road                                                                                                51
Bridge Farm, Twyford                                                                                                     48
Hyde End Rd, Shinfield                                                                                                 44
Ashridge Farm                                                                                                                   35
East of Toutley Depot                                                                                                     35
Winnersh Farms                                                                                                                30
 
Of these sites, Hall Farm was the third most objected to. 

Not all sites got the thumbs down from residents. The sites with the highest ‘agreement’ percentages were Ashridge Farm and East of Toutley depot (49% each). Only 35% of responses to each of these sites objected to them.

Most proposed sites produced around 400-500 responses from residents and community groups. Hall Farm got no fewer than 1,274 responses! That's a sign that people care a lot about this site and the place its unspoilt countryside has in the local community. More than 700 people or community groups voiced their disagreement with housing development there. This was easily the largest amount of opposition to a development proposal recorded by the Council’s consultation.

The 2022 public consultation showed clear opposition to the Hall Farm/Loddon Valley proposal among residents of the Borough.