Wokingham council approves business park to be built on countryside land

The council committee voted unanimously to approve the plans

Plans to build a business park have been agreed despite it meaning the loss of Berkshire countryside.

Developers want to build 11 warehouse, office and industrial units, along with cafes or canteens, next to Bridge Farm business park in Wokingham.

Neighbours are concerned it would damage the Pound Copse woodland.

But councillors were told the wood would not be harmed and the economic benefits outweighed rules that protected the countryside.

Councillor David Cornish, chair of Wokingham Borough Council's planning committee, said he felt "conflicted" about the proposals.

He described them as a "good idea" even though they went against several rules set by the government and the council itself.

'Lives blighted'

He said: "I find myself very conflicted... It's more often the case that applications come before this committee where you intuitively feel this is a bad idea to build whatever it might be here, but there's a raft of policies telling you that we should.

"But here we have an application, effectively an extension to an existing business park, which feels like quite a good idea, with a raft of policies telling us that we shouldn't."

Council planning officer Brian Conlon said the decision was not "clear cut" but that policies encouraging economic benefits had to be weighed against those protecting the countryside.

He pointed to a government policy that puts "significant weight" on "the need to support economic growth and productivity" but admitted this "doesn't trump everything".

Several residents wrote to object, including Peter Tyers, from Arborfield, who said the lives of people and wildlife would be "blighted" by the effects of the development.

"The residents of Greensward Lane, together with the wildlife sustained by Pound Copse, will be affected by the pollution, noise, dust, light, created by any development. Lives already blighted by the construction of Observer Way and its subsequent use," he said.

Councillors were told environment officers had no objections and the developers had done an ecological survey that found the woodland would be unaffected.

The committee voted unanimously to approve the plans.