NEWSLETTER MARCH 2019 ISSUE NO.2 Getting A Voice - Resident Must Come First An Independent View of , Spencer’s Wood, and Villages Are they listening? Thank you all for the feedback on our first Newsletter (Development Special Jan 2019). In this issue we are looking at “Getting A Voice”. How can residents be heard with their concerns about the impacts of mass development in our villages and the effect it is having on our village communities? The good news is that we are starting to be heard. Residents pulling together, showing their support in numbers at meetings, etc. is having an effect, thanks to everyone for their support. However, we still have only a small voice, the greater the numbers the bigger the voice will become. We want to put residents first, not political parties, not developers, not political aspirations, we simply want residents and their concerns to be the priority. We believe this is what local government should be about? If you agree then join us on our Facebook group “SOS Save our Villages” or if you don’t do FB, then feel free to contact me, if you want to help save our villages. Borough Council don’t have a very good record of listening, although we are hopeful that can be changed. The more voices we have the greater our chance of getting residents heard and perhaps residents first becoming the Wokingham Borough Council’s culture. Why do we say - Save our Villages? Our villages of Shinfield, and Three Mile Cross are on target to have grown by over 152% in just a few years. Our neighbours in by 355% and Grazeley is under risk of even more extreme growth levels. Is this fair? We already experience the impacts of this initial growth, is it sensible to force through even more growth? What will the final impacts be to our area? Our villages have taken well over half of the total of all Wokingham Borough development. Is that fair? Why have we been subjected to this level of development? Isn’t it time to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

Published and promoted by Jim Frewin - 26, Oatlands Road, Shinfield. RG2 9DW Printed by Bluetree Design & Print Ltd - Unit A Brookfields Park, Manvers Way, Manvers, Rotherham S63 5DR What are the impacts? Traffic Daily commute times are beyond acceptable. Daily traffic congestion, not just at peak times with major issues at our motorway junctions and pinch points across our villages Health Our excellent local Hospitals, Medical Centres and GP practices are only just coping with the extra demand and are being stretched to breaking point. Hospital waiting times in A&E continually missing the 4 hour wait time. Under stress GP’s work with patient ratios well above the National average with appointment waiting times in excess of 5 weeks in some cases. Schools Despite having some excellent local schools, some of you will have recently experienced first hand the lack of school spaces. We heard from one very unhappy parent who lives about 1 mile from Oakbank School but has been allocated a school over 5 miles away All of this with only about 30% of the currently approved new houses built and less than that actually occupied!! With potentially another 20,000 houses to come, how are our villages going to cope!! If we don’t get some common sense into local growth in our villages, our communities will suffer even more!! Planning by the rules? The planning process could be seen by some as being biased towards developers. On Wokingham Borough Council’s web site there is a support link on Planning Policy and Advice for Developers. And for residents? For everyone else there is not even a contact name or any way of getting questions answered. Valid multiple objections and petitions seemingly count for nothing. WHY? Only recently developers cut down a significant area of wild- life habitat and a large number of trees, deliberately against Government guidelines and Countryside Acts. The site has no planning approval , why are they able to get away with this? If a resident did this the council would act. Behaviour of this Nature should not be allowed to continue. SANG Heavens - Thankfully some Councillors can and do listen, working with our group a proposed Shinfield SANG was recently rejected. The reason being, the existing SANG is unusable for significant periods of the year, unless you like to swim. Is this the start of a common sense approach? Only time will tell. Let’s hope the Planning Inspector uses the same common sense when considering the inevitable appeal.

If you would like to know more about saving our villages then please join us on Facebook at SOS Save our Villages or feel free to contact me on 07785734190 or at [email protected] Published and promoted by Jim Frewin - 26, Oatlands Road, Shinfield. RG2 9DW Printed by Bluetree Design & Print Ltd - Unit A Brookfields Park, Manvers Way, Manvers, Rotherham S63 5DR