Question

The Mid & West Berkshire Access Forum was deeply disappointed to discover recently that, contrary to the advice contained in its submission to the planning application and its presentation to WBC at the Planning Meeting for Reading Football Club’s Academy, a signal-controlled crossing was not made a condition of approval for this application.  Furthermore, no developer funding was secured for the crossing and a feasibility study, that we were told by your Countryside Officer in November was underway, has not happened.

Explain how this situation has arisen given that RFC offered land at no cost at the Planning Meeting and that it was acknowledged that the crossing could be funded through CIL contributions, and detail the reasoning behind the decision taken by WBC not to provide such a crossing?

The Mid & West Berkshire Access Forum was deeply disappointed to discover recently that contrary to the advice contained in its submission to the planning application and its presentation to WBC at the Planning Meeting for Reading Football Club’s Academy, a signal-controlled crossing was not made a condition of approval for this application.  Furthermore, no developer funding was secured for the crossing and a feasibility study, that we were told by your Countryside Officer in November was underway, has not happened.

Explain how this situation has arisen given that RFC offered land at no cost at the Planning Meeting and that it was acknowledged that the crossing could be funded through CIL contributions, and detail the reasoning behind the decision taken by WBC not to provide such a crossing?

Answer:

This crossing location is part of the Council’s ambitious Greenway project.  We will be looking into the feasibility of providing a crossing for use by equestrians and other users at this location in due course as part of the project.

The matter was discussed at the Planning Committee and that resulted in Reading Football Club verbally promising to make land available to accommodate a crossing facility if a feasibility study is positive.

The Greenway project proposes several routes across the Borough which will need to be delivered in a phased approach over a number of years.  The order in which these routes will be delivered is yet to be agreed and will depend on the complexities of the various routes in terms of land ownership issues, environmental constraints and overall costs. 

Once we have an agreed programme for the delivery of the Greenways we will be able to provide an indication as to when the crossing could be provided. Currently there is no capital funding allocated for Greenway project but it will be in the financial year 2017/18.

Supplementary Question:

Thank you for your response.  Our concerns really revolve around the fact that the land is available now and of course it may not be by the time you get your plan together.  I will certainly go back to the LAF with the response but to be honest it does not really answer the question that we asked about why this could not have been achieved out of the planning application.  So if I can move to my supplementary now, I have spoken to Anthony Stansfield who is the Police Commissioner, as you are aware, and one of the problems with putting in a crossing is often speed limits and so on.  He has told me that the Police budget will contain no money at all for enforcement on rural roads so then a speed limit becomes slightly irrelevant.  You might also like to know that West Berkshire Council is installing a crossing for £20,000.  This is a signal controlled crossing that is half the cost that these things usually have been.  Really, what I would like is for Wokingham Borough Council to make a commitment to work with the LAF so we can find a way to actually make this crossing a reality please.

Supplementary Answer:

Firstly, I would like to thank you for being my first question in this role.  Being new to the job I do not have the answer to that but I have made several notes.  We will work on it and I will come back to you with a written answer and probably talk to you face to face.