A parish council is calling for the government to intervene in an upcoming decision on a plan for more than 200 homes at a village near Bracknell.
Warfield Parish Council has asked the Secretary of State to step in over a plan for 235 homes on fields between Warfield and Winkfield Row, near Bracknell.
The site covers six fields bounded by Bracknell Road and Forest Road in Hayley Green, just north of the Whitegrove area. A decision is due from Bracknell Forest Council's planning committee this week (Thursday, January 15).
The dispute centres on community greenspace. The 235-home proposal was allocated in the Warfield Neighbourhood Plan on the understanding that community greenspace would be created and accessible to neighbours, but that greenspace is missing from the masterplan put forward by Jordan Construction Ltd.
Doctor Gareth Barnard, chair of Warfield Parish Council, said: “The parish has been left with no option but to take this step to refer the application to the Secretary of State.
“The parish council, in developing its Neighbourhood Plan over a period of seven years, acted responsibly in promoting the land and involved both the borough and the proposed developers in multiple meetings about the plan and the land allocation.
“The referendum result, approving the neighbourhood plan, was heavily influenced by the presence of the proposed community space.
“Despite objections from the community, and representations from the parish council, the borough planning officers appear determined to recommend the application to the planning committee without the proposed community space.
“We have no alternative but to ask the Secretary of State to intervene as the decision to remove a key part of the neighbourhood plan has serious implications for neighbourhood planning not just in Bracknell but nationwide and could be viewed as an attack on the entire concept of local plans and community involvement in local planning.”
Cllr Barnard is also a Conservative representative for Whitegrove ward on Bracknell Forest Council.
The project has been recommended for approval by Bracknell Forest Council's planning team manager, Margaret McEvit. The site was designated for housing in the Bracknell Forest Local Plan adopted in March 2024, and Ms McEvit's report states that provision of community space had to be adjusted by Jordan Construction due to the need to 'maintain the most sensitive ecological areas on site'.
The local government secretary, Steve Reed OBE, the Labour MP for Streatham and Croydon North, has the power to 'call-in' applications for determination. You can view the application by typing reference 24/00718/OUT into the council's planning portal.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
