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Search the Public Notice PortalA showdown is taking place over a project that would see dozens of new homes added to a former golf course which South Oxfordshire District Council has been involved with.
The former Reading Golf Course, off Kidmore End Road in Caversham, is being built on to create a new community.
The development, called Emmer Green Drive, will total 223 homes once complete.
It was given the go-ahead in 2022, with land acquisitions company Fairfax introducing a plan to add 70 new homes as an extension to the site last year.
This would extend the development into South Oxfordshire District Council’s jurisdiction.
But that council’s planning committee rejected the project due to the land not being designated for housing, and it is deemed to be in an unsustainable location.
Fairfax appealed against this decision to the government planning inspectorate.
An inquiry into the appeal is taking place over multiple days, and is being attended by planning agents and people from the Keep Emmer Green campaign group, which has opposed the development from the outset.
A post on the group’s Facebook page states: “On the first day, we saw a packed room with lots of local people present to demonstrate that this site matters to us.
“Huge thanks to those who came and also to those who spoke on why this site is so precious. We heard about bats, birds and wildlife, trees, roads and well-being. It was wonderful. We have such a great community.
“Most of the rest of the time has seen the developer’s lawyers trying to establish, point after point, that the site is “urban”, and “low value” and not worthy to be a locally valued landscape – even though that is how it has independently been categorised in South Oxfordshire and Kidmore End plans.
“It’s been frustrating listening.”
Defending the project, an agent from Boyer Planning argued the 70 homes extension would create a ‘high- quality landscape and ecology-led residential scheme’ in a sustainable location north of Reading.
They also mentioned that the development would deliver up to 28 affordable homes, making up 40 per cent of those provided.
The agent wrote: “The residential scheme can be delivered without having undue impact on the site’s immediate neighbours, the wider area or key landscape and ecological features.
“The site is available, sustainable and importantly, deliverable, and will link to Emmer Green and the wider area.”
The five-day appeal hearing concludes on Wednesday, May 13, and is taking place at the Fountain Conference Centre in Wallingford.
The project was discussed by Reading Borough Council as the site sits right on the council’s border and access would be provided from Emmer Green Drive.
Reading council has requested £150,000 to improve safety at the Last Crumb junction.
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