After years of waiting the Revised Local Plan Update for Wokingham Borough Council is now scheduled to be published this autumn, 2023. When we last saw the LPU it proposed 4,500 houses to be built over 30 years as part of a massive new Strategic Development Location in the South of Wokingham.

The land it is proposed to build on is predominantly farm land but also has areas of ancient woodland, flood plain, and contains several locally valued heritage features such as a Church ruin and an avenue of trees.

The best way to stop the proposed “Loddon Valley Garden Village” is to challenge some of the core assumptions contained within it the Revised Local Plan, and to do this we will need to commission expert reports and advice. Your donations will also be used for publicity materials such as banners, posters and flyers, and to hire venues for public meetings to discuss how best we as a community can protect the Loddon Valley at Hall Farm.

Our current understanding is that challenging the Environmental Impact Assessment would be our best shot at winning our case when this goes before an Independent Inspector next year. Particularly vulnerable to challenge by us are the flood risk, the harm to biodiversity, the threatened ancient woodland, the impact of increased traffic, the lack of any kind of infrastructure on the site, including transport, sewage and power, and the potential damage to local heritage assets.

Statutory Consultees that we will be contacting include; The Environment Agency , Natural England , English Heritage , The Council for the Protection of Rural England , The Highways Agency, and others who can benchmark for us the Net Biodiversity which will be put at risk should the houses be built.

If one or more of these Statutory Consultees opposed the Hall Farm development that would carry significant weight with the inspector. If you can help in any way please get in touch using one of the links below. If you can donate money we will use it to fight this inappropriate development and Save Our Loddon Valley at Hall Farm.

Email affordableandsustainable@google.com

Website www.green4grow.org/

Facebook SOLVE Hall Farm