Hidden between the Roman “Devil’s Highway” and the Reading–Waterloo railway, Wokingham Without’s Pinewood Leisure Centre is a buzzing community hub — and it’s under threat.
Pinewood is home to a community café (and Charlie the parrot), a miniature railway, a tug‑of‑war team, a gymnastics club, line dancing, burlesque, a custom scalextric‑style raceway and birds of prey. Locals say it’s a warm, family place — but a boundary fight could break it up.
The parish of Wokingham Without is oddly split into three sectors: a rural north around Heathlands garden centre, Holme Grange Craft Village and the Crooked Billet; a central spine with St Sebastian’s Hall, church and village school on Nine Mile Ride; and a southern part that looks like Crowthorne but is cut by the Roman road known as “The Devil’s Highway.” North of Gardner’s Green the parish juts into southern Wokingham, ending at the railway where a huge development will add 1,400 new houses.
At a Wokingham Borough Council meeting on 22 January the council agreed to keep most borough boundaries fixed until 2035 — except the line between Wokingham town and Wokingham Without. A last‑minute amendment asked the parish to “actively engage in dialogue with the town councillor to re‑negotiate its boundaries and give up territory to the new development.” In short: Wokingham town wants a big chunk of Wokingham Without.
Parish Council chairman Nicholas Martin reacted strongly: “We were absolutely flabbergasted to see this amendment submitted at the last minute. We are quite upset about it really.”
He added: “This yellow piece of paper was issued at the actual meeting. It was all done at the last minute. We feel like it wasn’t done openly by [Wokingham Borough] Council.”
On the parish’s long history he said: “Since 1865 they’ve been happy with these boundaries.” And on timing: “It’ll be premature to hold a review in 2030 rather than 2035 because only half of the houses will be built then.”
Local councillor and Pinewood Community Café owner Pauline Jordan warned the move would shift developer money away from the parish. She said: “If they take part of this SDL [Strategic Development Location with its 1400 new houses] away from out parish, they will take the CIL [Civil Infrastructure Levy] funds away.”
“We want it because we’ve got things we want to spend it on.”
Wokingham Borough councillor Rachel Burgess (Labour) argued for an earlier review: “The residents of the new area will think of themselves as residents of Wokingham town. They will tell their family and friends they are moving to Wokingham. A cursory glance at a map will show a settlement to the south of Wokingham. They will therefore be surprised to find they are not living in Wokingham and not even living in Crowthorne. They will be dismayed to learn that Borough Councillors had the chance to prevent this geographic anomaly from occurring, but chose not to.”
Locals want any developer contributions to stay put — funding the gymnastics club, birds of prey, line dancers, burlesque and the tug‑of‑war team — not be absorbed by Wokingham town.
Ted O'Neill, Local Democracy Reporter
