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Cookham's Green Belt Listed for Housing

(9 April 2009)

THE COOKHAM SOCIETY

 Safeguarding and advancement of the Cookhams, in the Royal County of Berkshire.

The Cookham Society is urging its members to make their feelings known to the Royal Borough with regard to the current Green Belt review and its Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).  Just over 125 hectares of Green Belt land in Cookham has been earmarked and potentially could be used for housing.  The Society has obtained the list of proposed sites.

Using the Borough’s own estimates of 30 dwellings per hectare, this could result in more than 3750 additional homes in Cookham.  Development on this scale would mean that Cookham would lose its village, uniqueness and ability to attract visitors and would become congested with traffic.  It would become a suburb of Maidenhead.

The larger sites include Cannon Court Farm; land at Lower Mount Farm and Grubwood Lane; land north of Burnt Oak and west of Sutton Close.

Georgina Kilner, Chairman, commented that:

“...this is the type of consultation which appears to have little immediate effect but has far reaching consequences.  We urge all residents to write to planning.policy@rbwm.gov.uk to oppose the inclusion of these areas as potential housing development sites before the April 20^th consultation deadline”

Action needed before April 20^th

The Planning Group of The Cookham Society has decided to take the unusual step of writing directly to all members to alert them to two separate consultations and a Green Belt Review currently taking place at The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead all of which directly affect Cookham.  These three areas of work are all important.

(1)   Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA)

Between 2006 and 2026, the Borough has been targeted to produce an additional 6920 dwellings in The South East Plan. The SHLAA will simply list and map sites within the Borough which have the potential for housing development and you will note that some of them are situated in the Green Belt.

Several of these sites, if developed, would narrow the gap between Maidenhead and Cookham to an unacceptable degree and create major traffic issues for our Village. The final decision about which sites will be selected will be made in The Local Development Framework (LDF).  However, you may wish to comment on the sites before then. 

We urge you to read the report, take an informed view and respond to the Borough, but this must be done by April 20th.  The details can be found on the borough’s website: http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/pp_development_sites.htm

or simply type SHLAA in the search engine.  All the sites above are not listed in the report’s appendices - we had to ask for them separately – these are from appendices 7,8 and 9. 

The address for responses is Planning Policy Manager, RBWM Planning Service, Town Hall, St Ives Road, Maidenhead, SL6 1RF or by e-mail to planning.policy@rbwm.gov.uk

Please don’t leave responding to this consultation to someone else – your views can make a difference at the stage when policies are being determined.

(2)   Local Development Framework Options Consultation

All households should have received a document from the Borough asking them to choose between high, medium or low density development.  If you have misplaced yours then go on line http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/pp_core_strategy.htm (or simply type LDF Options into the search engine.) and complete the on-line questionnaire – it will take only a few minutes:

For Question One, the choice that we will make for this consultation is “other”.  The reason we will make this choice is whereas we may believe that high density is a good idea in the heart of a town centre, we do not believe that to be the case in surrounding areas.

For Question Two, we will be placing a ‘5’ against the importance of the Green Belt.

For Question Three, we will select ‘A larger number of smaller sites’ given only the two choices but again have the issue with the right development for the right area.

For Question Four, we will select ‘Land next to town centres and other existing employment areas’.

The full document, which we as a Society, intend to reply to is much larger: the background and the long version of each of the questions can be accessed on the Borough’s website:

Alternatively, the address for responses is Planning Policy Manager, RBWM Planning Service, Town Hall, St Ives Road, Maidenhead, SL6 1RF or by e-mail to planning.policy@rbwm.gov.uk

Please don’t leave responding to this consultation to someone else – have a hand in shaping the environment in which we live

(3)   Green Belt Boundary Study

The Borough has been reviewing its land in the Green Belt and has so far come to the conclusion that the following two locations in Cookham warrant a change to the Green Belt boundary to enable their inclusion.

Open Space next to Holy Trinity Church (between the Parish Centre and Vicarage Close) and Land at Cookham House (River end of Berries Road)

These areas are not exhaustive and work is still underway to establish the potential of other locations that may be included in the study at a later date, and subsequently considered for designation as Green Belt.

The Society notes the absence of Poundfield and hopes the Borough will finally place this important site back into the Green Belt

There is no specific deadline for this consultation, as for the other two reports, but it would be helpful for you to make your initial comments at this time regarding land which you feel should be included by writing to:

Philip Hylton, Planning Officer , Planning and Development Unit, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Town Hall, St Ives Road, Maidenhead, SL6 1RF. Direct line: 01628 796303 or again via the planning.policy@rbwm.gov.uk e-mail address.

Please don’t leave responding to this review to someone else – once we lose our semi rural Green Belt environment we cannot get it back.

Enquiries: Bill Spicer 01628 525258 bill@thespicers.co.uk

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