Councillors in Reading may refuse to support a 70-home scheme on the edge of Emmer Green if the developer fails to fund bus, health, leisure and cycling improvements.
Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) planning applications committee will consider plans submitted to neighbouring South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) for the 70-home extension to the controversial 223-home former Reading Golf Club redevelopment in Kidmore End Road, currently under construction, at its Wednesday, November 5 meeting.
The outline plans by Fairfax and Reading Golf Club for up to 70 more homes on land within South Oxfordshire, are yet to go before the SODC’s planning committee. But, while SODC will decide the application, Reading, as a neighbouring authority, will decide if it objects on Wednesday.
The agenda to go before the Reading councillors recommends they object to the proposals unless five conditions (four of them for financial contributions) are met.
For Reading councillors to support the scheme, the report demands:
- SODC secures money for local bus service improvements to be spent in consultation with RBC.
- £50,000 for pedestrian and cycle improvements to the junction of Prospect Street, Westfield Road, Peppard Road and Henley Road in Caversham.
- More information regarding pedestrian/cycle way improvements connecting the scheme to Highdown Hill Road.
- Cash towards increasing capacity at GP surgeries in Emmer Green, Caversham and Caversham Heights wards.
- RBC is given cash towards sport and leisure facilities in Reading borough.
If any of the conditions are not met RBC officer are recommending the council objects to the scheme.
The initial 223-home application by Fairfax and Reading Golf Club was mired in controversy. The homes, on part of the site within the Reading borough, were approved in 2022, despite a record 4,500 objections.
Further controversy arose two years ago when the developer went back to the council to change the planning consent to allow for gas boilers in 150 of the homes because there was too little grid capacity for the proposed air source heat pumps.
Vistry Homes is currently onsite delivering the scheme, now known as Emmer Green Drive.
The new application is to develop a 5.9-hectare section to the north. It would be the first homes to be developed on the South Oxfordshire portion of the former golf club. Plans include a 40 per cent proportion of affordable homes.
The team on the project includes Boyer on planning, Paul Hewett Architects and SDP on transport.
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