Back in April 2022 SOLVE Hall Farm held a demonstration against the proposed building of 4,500 houses at Hall Farm, outside the gates of the University of Reading’s Whiteknights Campus. It was attended by several of our local politicians, probably because of the perceived importance of housing development as an issue in the upcoming Local Elections of May 2022.
This was the Local Election that proved to be so pivotal in Wokingham and led to the collapse of Conservative control and a takeover of power in the Borough by the Liberal Democrats. Housing development in Wokingham was a hot topic, to the point that we (SOLVE Hall Farm representatives) were interviewed on local television and radio.
Move on just a year to May 2023 and Wokingham is a different place. With a huge push from the army of activists the National Liberal Democratic Party has access to, and a relentless campaign of political propaganda, the Lib Dems are now apparently feeling so secure in their position as Leaders of the Wokingham Borough Council they can publish material ahead the next General Election that completely ignores housing development as any kind of issue whatsoever!
I refer to the leaflet coming to a letterbox near you any day now, if you haven’t already received it, pictured below.
Curiously, given the stance taken by Clive just 16 months before, issues such as the NHS, Cost of Living and the treatment of sewage all get a mention. But housing in Wokingham and development in the countryside around our green and leafy Borough do not, despite this being the year that the Revised Local Plan gets to be (finally) unveiled!
Well, who would have thought it! That must mean the threat of 4,500 houses to be built on the fields and flood plain around the Loddon Valley at Hall Farm are now just a distant memory? A long-lost pipe dream cooked up by the previous administration. Nothing to see here guv’, kindly move along and let me be elected as Member of Parliament for Wokingham!
The leaflet claims the wannabe “Right Honourable” Clive Jones wants to know what matters to the residents of Wokingham, and I feel most strongly we should all take just a moment to tell him! In fact, I feel the urge to share my views on concreting over the South of the Borough so the North of the Borough can continue to breath fresh air so greatly I shall do you, and Clive, the service of providing a link straight from this page to Clive’s survey 😊 Here you go:
It takes just a few minutes and I suggest answering the “any other local concerns” question as “Development on green field sites” or similar. I also put Climate Change as my top “national concern” but of course your milage may differ.
N.B. This link https://www.wokinghamlibdems.org.uk/surveys takes you to three surveys, I had a go at all of them. I also gave Clive my personal details for my responses, he has them anyway, but I think you can just leave your personal details blank should you not want to be sharing them? Anyway, it seems to still work if you leave name, phone, and email blank 😉
Enjoy!
Characteristically unfair and uncomprehending of the legal issues surrounding the Local Plan Update. No Lib Dem councillor and certainly no member of the Executive will make any comments on Hall Farm until the LPU is published, and even then predetermination means that their comments will be cautious and guarded.