Council Debates Controversial Housing Plans in Shefford

A row over plans to build on an old football pitch in Great Shefford will be debated by West Berkshire planners next week (Wednesday, August 19).

Home owners were told the site would remain in agricultural use under a legal covenant. But the land has been allocated as a potential development site in West Berkshire's Local Plan to meet Government housing demands, and officials are looking to change the legal framework to enable 16 homes to be built.

Officers say they recognise residents may have reasonably understood the land would remain restricted, but that planning obligations are 'not permanent or immutable controls.' "Planning legislation expressly provides mechanisms through which such obligations may be modified or discharged where circumstances have changed," they said.

The council was told in March 1998 that the football club had ceased to exist and the landowner had resumed possession. Further correspondence in August 2008 said the land had not been used as a football pitch for in excess of 10 years and asked about reverting it to agricultural use.

Eighteen people have objected, saying the original agreement was meant to protect the land long term, that buyers relied on it and that the pitch could be brought back into use. West Berkshire's own playing pitch strategy says the area doesn't have enough football pitches.

Great Shefford Parish Council also objected, saying residents bought homes expecting the land to stay agricultural and that altering the covenant would undermine the agreement and weaken its protections. "They therefore request that the proposed modification be refused."

The council says the most significant change in circumstances is the adoption of the West Berkshire Local Plan Review 2023-2041, which now supports residential development on the site in principle.

Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter