With significantly more housing needed in the Wokingham Borough in the years ahead, Wokingham Borough Council is starting work on its blueprint to ensure the new homes are built in the right places and come with the right schools, roads and other facilities to ensure the borough remains a great place to live, work, play and do business.
An independent assessment of the area’s housing needs conducted last year (Strategic Housing Market Assessment) showed that the borough will have to accommodate approximately 850 new homes a year up to 2036. Housing is already being delivered, including through the borough’s four Strategic Development Locations which will continue to deliver housing up to 2026 and in some cases beyond this date, which meet much of this need. In order to ensure these homes are properly planned, the council is updating its Local Plan, which will set the principles of where and how the homes and other development should be provided.
The Local Plan update will be produced in conjunction with a wide range of organisations as well as with input from public consultation and engagement. The initial stage in the production of the Local Plan update will be to identify potential land for development. In order to achieve this, the council has issued a call for sites, which is an opportunity for any individual or organisation to put potential development sites forward. These sites will be carefully assessed through the Local Plan process to see whether they are appropriate for development. Land can be put forward for uses such as housing or for employment.
Anyone can submit a site for consideration by completing the online call for sites form available on the consultations page. The call for sites will run from today (January 11) until midday on Friday February 5.
Cllr John Kaiser, executive member for planning and highways said: "We need to be clear that the potential development sites submitted will be very carefully assessed and only those that we find acceptable will be allocated for development.
"This part of the Local Plan process is about seeing what might be available - and everybody needs to understand that nominating a site for consideration is absolutely no guarantee that it will end up being included for development."
