Prue Bray

I think everyone who is familiar with Winnersh knows that the Loddon Bridge park and ride floods.   Frequently.   As it is right next to the River Loddon,  it is not really very surprising that it is prone to flooding.   It often has to be shut because water levels are rising,  even though it does not flood every time there is a flood warning.  Clearly this is unsatisfactory for users.  Though not as unsatisfactory as having to write off your car because it is submerged under water, which happened to several dozen cars in the Loddon Bridge park and ride a few years ago, and is the reason why the council is so cautious now about closing the car park when there is a chance of the Loddon flooding.

The council is now proposing to move the park and ride to the other side of the road, to a site next to the existing Winnersh Triangle station car park.  In fact, the existing car park will be incorporated into the new park and ride.    This land is much less likely to flood – all the access roads would be under water first.    The money is coming from a government grant for sustainable transport.   All in all, it should be a more reliable service.

This seems like a good thing, although I do have a couple of concerns.  

There will be fewer parking spaces in total.   If the new, more reliable, park and ride, turns out to be more successful, fewer spaces may be a problem in the long run, although at the moment neither the station car park nor the existing park and ride are at anything like capacity.

The second concern is over the charging mechanism.    There are a few complicating factors, due to the railway station.  There is currently a charge for the station car park, and rail users can get refunds (if the ticket office is open).    But the current park and ride car park is free, with all the charge going on the bus fare.   Also, lots of people park for free in nearby residential roads,  to dodge the station car park charges.   And of course, car park users will have the choice of rail or bus.    The fares are different, the timetables are different, and the fare income goes to different bodies.   All in all, a complicated task to work out how to charge for the park and ride.

And my final concern is about the residents in those surrounding roads who currently suffer from commuter parking.   There is a risk that the park and ride could make their situation even worse.     Measures to stop inappropriate parking need to be brought in.   Rachelle (the other Lib Dem councillor) and I have been looking at this for some time, as has the Neighbourhood Action Group.  Tomorrow night I will be going out with a local resident to get signatures on a petition asking the council to look at introducing parking restrictions.  And I wll be suggesting such restrictions are considered as part of the process of moving the park and ride.

You can see the planning application for the park and ride by looking up F/2013/0889 at   

http://tinyurl.com/WBCwebsite       The deadline for comments is 26th June.

Just to remind everyone, the Winnersh Fete will be on Saturday 15th June, starting at 1 pm at Bearwood Rec on Mole Road.

The fete is a real community event, organised by the parish council, and entry is free.  

You should get a flyer through your door – the parish councillors (including me) have been out and about distributing them.   

Hope to see you there.

Lots of people have already put in comments, but just in case you are someone who meant to but forgot:

Wednesday May 8th is the deadline for comments on the Taylor Wimpey application to put 150 houses on land behind Maidensfield in Winnersh 

The planning application number is O/2013/0434.

You can email your comments to development.control@wokingham.gov.uk – and don’t forget to quote the application number.  Normally I would suggest you use the online form but the council are having trouble with that part of their website today.

Hatch Farm Dairies is a Bovis scheme which has already received outline planning permission for 433 houses on land between King Street Lane and Lower Earley Way in Winnersh.  Access would be from King Street Lane on the Winnersh side of the motorway bridge, with a new road that runs to Lower Earley Way.   The original plan when the scheme was proposed was that a new two-form entry (420 pupil) primary school would be built on the site and that Bearwood Primary School would relocate there.   The plan was for the new school to be open by now.   In fact, originally it was expected to be open by 2010!

If you think I am joking about long this is taking, the picture above is of me with Malcolm Armstrong (a councillor between 2004 – 2011) on the Hatch Farm Dairies site in 2006!  Yes, the Bovis scheme really has been in the pipeline that long!

The timing is totally dependent on Bovis starting development.  They have not yet submitted the Reserved Matters application to follow up on the outline planning permission granted in November 2011, so any building is still some way off.   In the meantime, the council has had to fill the need for primary school places with the new school at Winnersh Farm.  Also, new government rules have been introduced in the last 3 years which mean that it is more difficult for the council to relocate a school.  Both of those things have affected the council’s view on what is needed at Hatch Farm Dairies.

The current plans are for a new one-form entry primary school to be built at Hatch Farm Dairies, with a possibility of later expansion to a two-form entry school.  Bearwood Primary School will remain open in its present location.   The date for when the new school will be built depends on what Bovis decides to do.

Taylor Wimpey have submitted a planning application O/2013/0434 – which you can view here: 

http://tinyurl.com/co8wfyj

to build 150 houses on land behind Maidensfield and Grovelands Park, round the back of Winnersh Farm.   The proposed access is through Maidensfield, which is a cul de sac off Watmore Lane.

I think this is a dreadful application.   The good news is that Wokingham Borough Council are likely to turn it down, because they have not allocated the site for housing.   However, there is still the possibility of an appeal.   Taylor Wimpey will also be arguing that the site should be allocated for housing when the council’s planning policies are assessed by a Planning Inspector during 3 weeks of hearings and site visits in May.   Taylor Wimpey’s task will not be easy because the council has some decent arguments on its side.

Rachelle and I have put out a leaflet to around 700 houses which are closest to the Taylor Wimpey site.   We also have an email list for keeping people updated on the application.   If you would like to be added to it, send me an email (prue@brayjc.plus.com).

We know it isn’t what some of the residents of Woodward Close would have liked, but on Wednesday evening, 27th March,  the planning application for the new primary school next to the British Legion at Winnersh Farm was approved by the Planning Committee of Wokingham Borough Council.   The shortage of school places has to be given greater weight than almost anything else under national planning policy, which meant that once the planning application was submitted its approval was inevitable.

Other ways of providing the extra places had been looked at, including a further expansion of the existing Winnersh Primary School site, and were all ruled out as unfeasible.

The new school is due to open in September, with 30 children in its first class, and build up over 7 years until it has 210 children.

There are concerns about extra traffic and parking, but we have managed to get agreement that those issues will be revisited regularly as the school increases in size, with extra measures able to be put in place if problems occur.

Councils are no longer able to open new local authority schools, but have to find an education provider to run the school as an academy.   On Thursday 28th March, the Executive of the Borough Council announced that there were a number of providers interested in running the school, and agreed criteria for scoring their bids.  I do not know who any of the bidders are.  The final say on who will be chosen as the provider rests with Michael Gove.