Taken from Wokingham Borough Council News Centre
Wokingham Borough Council’s proposals for up to 87 new homes at Winnersh Farm has taken a step forward with the submission of an outline planning application for the site which sits next to a new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) school. Plans for the school were submitted by the Department for Education earlier this summer.
Subject to receiving planning consent, the council hopes to use the site to showcase energy efficient development with plans to achieve as close to Carbon net zero development as possible, whilst still delivering a high proportion of affordable housing.
“We know a lot of residents have concerns about of the impact of housing in the borough on local resources and the environment.” said Cllr John Kaiser, executive member for finance and housing. “The council is committed to tackling the climate emergency, so we need to consider how to balance this with the need for more housing carefully.
“That’s why schemes like Winnersh Farms and Toutley East are so important. We want to use them as pilots to showcase how development can be done in a sustainable manner, minimising it’s impact on the environment as well as the neighbouring area.”
“We’ve started the process of talking to the wider industry, getting advice and ideas for how we can make residential development carbon net zero, as well as learning from our experience of delivering flagship developments like the new Dinton Activity Centre.”
Since consulting on the Winnersh Farm plans earlier this year, designs have been refined to further reduce the impact of noise from the nearby M4, and to take into account the revised layout of the new SEND school.
The Winnersh Farm planning application can be viewed on the council website at: www.wokingham.gov.uk by searching for planning application number 212404. People have until Monday 16 August to comment on the proposals.
Plans for Wokingham Borough Council to become a leader in showcasing low carbon housing development have taken a step forward with the submission of the planning application for Winnersh Farm ???
Find out more ? https://t.co/WgFWdaMt6o pic.twitter.com/yzeQcEqeF9
— Wokingham Borough (@WokinghamBC) August 2, 2021
