The leaders of West Berkshire Council and neighbouring Basingstoke and Deane Council have drawn battle lines over plans for 350 houses over the border, but on the doorstep of Newbury.
Leaders in West Berkshire and neighbouring Basingstoke and Deane are at odds over plans for 350 houses right on the border — on the doorstep of Newbury. West Berkshire says it will carry most of the cost because the new development’s nearest town is Newbury and its services will be heavily used.
Basingstoke and Deane has added housing in the area just across the road from West Berkshire’s boundary, which campaigners say will put pressure on schools, roads and other services between there and Newbury. West Berkshire Council leader Jeff Brooks met his Basingstoke counterpart last night (Monday, January 12) after mass demos in villages near the district’s border and a protest by about 150 villagers in Mortimer. “I was at a meeting with the Basingstoke and Deade leadership and asked them not to do it,” said Mr Brooks.
“I said I would prefer you didn’t include those sites in the Local Plan. But they are not going to turn round and say because you ask we won’t do it,” he added. Mr Brooks confirmed a motion will go to his council in March asking the neighbouring authority not to include the sites in its Local Plan, and that he is writing to Westminster to see a ‘complete mitigation for pressure put on our services’.
He warned over funding: “They cant give Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), but if children are coming to our schools then we have to be able to recoup additional demands from them,” he said . Councils have a duty to cooperate, so West Berkshire says it is effectively caught between a rock and a hard place — taking the matter to Westminster looks like its only realistic option. Mr Brooks has asked officers to find out what other councils in similar situations are doing.
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
