Plan for thousands of new homes approved by council

The plan for the borough will only go ahead once it is approved by a planning inspector

A contentious plan for thousands of new homes in a Berkshire borough has been approved by a council.

Wokingham Borough Council's Local Plan outlines where major development should go until 2040 and includes the Loddon Garden Village.

The council’s leader Stephen Conway said he “sympathised” with residents opposed to developments but the authority must accommodate people who are struggling “to find a place of their own”.

The plan will only be formally adopted once it has been approved by a government-appointed planning inspector.

About 1,000 new homes are planned for smaller development sites

The number of homes planned for the Loddon Garden Village has been cut from an initial 4,500 to 3,900.

Land that would be used for the garden village includes the Hall Farm site, which is owned by the University of Reading.

Another 1,100 homes could be built at the South Wokingham major development, bringing the total there to about 3,600 homes.

While the plan also included another 900 at the Arborfield Green development, which has already got permission for about 3,500 homes.

About 1,000 new homes would also be built on other smaller sites across the borough.

The council's leader Stephen Conway said he could understand some residents' "dismay"

Mr Conway said all councils’ Local Plans involve making “difficult choices”.

He told a meeting of the authority on Thursday: “I can understand why residents near potential residential developments are dismayed. I wish we could devise a plan that upsets no one but unfortunately that is not possible.

“We need much more affordable housing to meet local need and the only way we currently can add affordable housing at scale is through market housing developments,” he added.

The plan has taken years to devise and does not include the new Labour government’s housing targets.

As part of them, Wokingham is expected to need to support the building of about 1,300 homes a year, up from 748 a year.