Sandford Farm Waste Removal
Decision Delayed

The campaign by Hurst Village Society and Loddon Valley Action against Hicks Persimmon's Sandford Farm proposals has been successful in delaying the decision making process.

During the summer and autumn the two groups lobbied the Environment Agency and English Nature - two statutory bodies that give specialist advice to Wokingham Unitary on applications such as these - to make it clear that local residents are very concerned about the potential damage to the environment and wildlife habitat caused by the proposals.

Both the Environment Agency and English Nature have told Wokingham Unitary that the applications are not satisfactory because of the inadequate Environmental Statement provided by the developers.

Wokingham UA is now able to use Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 1999 to require Hicks Persimmon to provide more detailed information than they have already given in the Environmental Statement.

This will mean that new information about the environmental impact of the proposals has to be researched and submitted in writing to Wokingham Unitary when it will be subject to public consultation in the usual way with planning applications. HVS and LVA will scrutinise it carefully and suggest further questions if we think it is necessary.

Until this happens the process of determining the current applications to remove 300,000 cubic metres of waste from Sandford Farm in Woodley and dump it in Lea Farm and Whistley Court Farm in Hurst so that 450,000 houses can be built on the re-filled site, is suspended. We can be confident that it will be the New Year before the Development Control Committee considers the revised proposals.