Thousands of houses planned are due to lack of opposition

The council appear to be making moves to build thousands of house. It's another example who a lack of an opposition has led to too much power to the current Conservative group. You only have yourselves to blame because if the people of Bracknell, Crowthorne and Sandhurst continue to vote for the same councillors from the same party then this is the result. The council can push though whatever plans they want.

 

If you wish to  halt or even reduce the number of houses being planned in our area then perhaps you should join the Northern Arc Action Group http://www.narcag.co.uk/ and sign their petition.

More land development for Bracknell Borough

Bracknell Forest Council has opened for consultation their plans for the future housing development here. Comments can be made on the website (I will post mine in due course).This is for the remaining 3,626 houses required of the 10,780 additional homes proposed by 2026.

 

The proposals include the heading 'Previously Developed Land in Defined Settlements'.

 

These sites are;

 

18 houses at Adastron House, Crowthorne Road, Bracknell

100 houses at Garth Hill School, Sandy Lane, Bracknell

14 houses on Land at Battle Bridge House, and Garage, Forest Road, Warfield

28 at Peacock Bungalow, Peacock Lane, Binfield

35 at Farley Hall, London Road, Binfield

77 at The Depot (Commercial Centre), Bracknell Lane West, Bracknell

40 at Albert Road Car Park, Bracknell

20 at The Iron Duke, Waterloo Place, Old Bakehouse Court, High Street, Crowthorne

216 at Land to the north of Eastern Road, Bracknell

 

Some of the sites above make sense like the Iron Duke which has been boarded up for quite some time. However it's the next list that I am most concerned about. When reading through the document I find that developed land includes parks and playing fields.

 

Other Land within Defined Settlements where policy SA 2 states 'Identified for housing and should be developed in accordance with the requirements identified in respect of each site and all general policy considerations.'

 

40 at Bay Drive, Bracknell

85 at The Football Ground, Larges Lane, Bracknell

10 at 24-30 Sandhurst Road, Crowthorne

100 at Land at Cricket Field Grove, Crowthorne

20 at Land at School Hill, Crowthorne

11 at Sandbanks, Longhill Road, Bracknell (Winkfield Parish)

75 at Land north of Cain Road, Binfield

12 at 152 New Road, Ascot (Winkfield Parish)

 

What caught my eye was the Football ground and Cricket Field Grove. This would mean a new location would have to be found for Bracknell FC (which has been looked at before).

 

Details of the sites can be viewed here and the maps are here.

 

Of course this is a consultation so these houses won't go ahead at all locations but it's worth getting in your thoughts about the developments now. Click on link here for your comments as they will be considered.

New Build Housing Standards

I know of a few people who have moved into new flats in Bracknell both through the housing associations and for private rent. Some of them have had problems with their new homes for example with mould, fittings and central heating.

In mid May 09 the BBC reported on this nationally here. To quote the opening paragraph ‘Thousands of developers surplus new build homes in England are being rejected by housing associations as they are not of a high enough standard.’

In addition to these problems it is also reported here that the UK’s new homes are the smallest homes in the developed world. When compared to Holland where the average size is 115 square meters and even Japan where homes are known to be small are 92.5 square meters, while in the UK it is 76 square Meters.

I am concerned that these issues maybe affecting Bracknell residents simply because there has been a large home and flat building program in Bracknell over recent years, some of which is allocated to housing associations.

Both the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Chartered Institute of Housing believe the government should force all builds to have higher minimum standards.

Details of Bracknell Forest Housing Strategy can be found on this document attached. It also contains some very interesting Statistics on population trends.

http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/housing-strategy-2009-to-2014.pdf

Please comment and let me know if this issue has affected you, as I would like to investigate this further.