Planning round-up: an equine facility in Binfield, 32 homes in Buckler's Park, and the revived Harris Walled Garden at Reading University.
32 new homes in Buckler's Park, Crowthorne (Bracknell application 2400660/FUL)
The application covers 29 new homes plus three previously approved plots rotated to face a different way - 32 homes in total. The mix is 6 two‑bed, 12 three‑bed, 9 four‑bed and 2 five‑bed houses, including 10 affordable units and 35 per cent affordable housing across social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership.
There will be on‑plot parking, garages and 10 visitor bays. The layout follows Buckler's Park design code and protects boundary trees. The site sits outside the settlement boundary on land earmarked for a municipal depot, but the applicant proposes public open space instead, giving a net gain in open space. Council officers accept some countryside harm but say, given Bracknell Forest's lack of a five‑year housing land supply, the extra housing, affordable provision, open space, biodiversity net gain and removal of the depot use outweigh that harm.
Equestrian centre at Primrose Fields, Binfield (Bracknell application PP‑14749496)
This is an application for a Lawful Development Certificate to confirm the land can lawfully be used for keeping horses. The land is already categorised for horse‑keeping and both the existing and proposed use fall within the same sui generis equestrian use class. The submission says there are no new buildings or engineering works and no change of use; the owner simply wants formal certification that the horse‑keeping unit is lawful on a permanent basis. The owners had already taken advice about whether an associated "day room" could be treated as permitted development.
Harris Walled Garden, University of Reading (Wokingham application 260498)
The university has been given sign‑off on works already carried out in the Harris Walled Garden but needs permission for two items: a new central pond and more than 50 square metres of hard landscaping. The university says a timber teaching shelter, accessible toilet, compostable toilets, raised planters and sleeper‑edged beds with soft landscaping did not count as development.
The scheme repurposes a previously neglected ornamental walled garden for outdoor teaching, organised into themed areas on food production, hydrology, climate change and the value of nature. It is designed to boost biodiversity, delivering an estimated 14.77 per cent biodiversity net gain through new habitats and planting. Supporting reports find minimal arboricultural impact, manageable surface‑water flood risk with a drainage strategy focused on the pond, and a beneficial effect on the non‑designated heritage asset, with historic brick walls retained and repaired using traditional materials.
Ted O'Neill, Local Democracy Reporter
