Issue - meetings

Recommendation: Conditional approval subject to legal agreement

Stephen Conway declared a prejudicial interest in this item and subsequently left the room and took no part in the discussion or vote.

Proposal: Outline application for up to 130 residential units and a 70-bed care home (all matters reserved except access to the site).

Applicant: Wokingham Borough Council

The Committee considered a report about this application, set out in agenda pages 73 to 138.

The Committee were advised that updates contained within the Supplementary Planning Agenda included:

·         Reference to an additional neighbour comment;

·         Extract from the minutes of the meeting held on 11 May 2022 in relation to this application.

Matt Pope, on behalf of the applicant, spoke in support of the application. Matt stated that he was reading out a statement prepared by David Hare, the Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Services, who was running late. Matt stated that Toutley East was included as part of the North Wokingham SDL when the Core Strategy was adopted in 2010, and had been expressly promoted for housing within the recent Local Plan Update. The proposals would deliver a positive number of truly affordable housing which would help to meet the projected housing need of the Borough in a very sustainable location with good access to facilities and close to Wokingham Town Centre. Matt added that opportunities would be explored to reduce the carbon footprint of the site in line with the Council’s declared climate emergency, in addition to exploring options to improve biodiversity. Matt stated that David Hare was primarily passing comment to champion the proposed specialist dementia care home which was required by Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) immediately. The long-term term trend for those who would require long-term dementia care was set to increase from 160 to 190 in 2025, and to 265 in 2035. Matt added that the impending reforms to adult social care in addition to increasing demand were a storm waiting to happen, and provisions needed to be made to meet this demand. Matt stated that David Hare had a constituent who was asked to leave his care home as he could become violent with staff and other patients, whilst no other care home would want to take him, whereas a WBC dementia care home could meet this type of need. The proposed care home would provide a modern and flexible type of care designed to support personalised care enabling residents to live healthy lives whilst providing better value than current provisions and ensuring enhanced in-Borough service provision for our residents. Matt stated that officers had been working hard to mitigate the problems, and added that David was confident that this facility would provide for the needs of our residents. Away from the prepared statement from David, Matt added that there was nothing of a higher priority for him than providing high quality dementia care ran by WBC.

Rachel Bishop-Firth, Ward Member, spoke in objection to the application. Rachel stated that whilst she was in support of additional social and affordable housing, issues including  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25