Reading Golf Club homes plan moves forward

The 223-home development will be built on the former golf course at Emmer Green

Plans to build hundreds of homes on a former golf course are moving forward after further details were approved.

An outline plan to build 223 homes at Reading Golf Club was approved last March, despite 4,000 objections.

Once permission from Reading Borough Council had been achieved, the applicants Fairfax sold the proposal to Vistry Thames Valley.

Vistry submitted further details of the development to the council's planning committee last week.

In its construction method statement, the developer set out how the work would take place.

Residents had previously raised concerns about traffic delays near the entrance to the site, at the junction of Kidmore End Road and Chalgrove Way.

Reading Golf Club has left its former course and said previously it wanted to leave a legacy for the area with the development

Helen Lambert, chair of the Caversham and District Residents Association, called traffic "a toxic mix" due to the narrowness of the road, its presence on bus routes and as a route to nearby schools.

She said it was "critical" that strong measures were put in place so traffic issues would not be exacerbated.

Vistry told the committee it would ensure construction deliveries took place outside of school drop-off times and that a manager would be on site to address any issues, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

The approved outline plan had also specified all the new homes would be heated by air source heat pumps - a renewable energy technology that absorbs heat from outside a structure and releases it inside.

However, Vistry later reduced that to 81 homes on the advice of energy provider SSEN, with the rest being heated through gas boilers, according to LDRS.