‘Extraordinary and unprecedented New Town’ – Thatcham Town Council on plans for 2,500 homes
Thatcham Town Council has responded to the West Berkshire Council (WBC) Emerging Draft Local Plan to 2037 and the strategic site (THA20) in North East Thatcham identified to support up to 2,500 homes.
The Town Council sets out its concerns in a 56 page document:
…the scale of this proposed development is extraordinary. In its understanding, no single site of this scale has ever been identified by WBC for previous developments. The number of homes proposed is comparable to the entirety of Hungerford and with this scale in mind, TTC’s concerns are related to the ability of existing infrastructure to support a New Town.
The Town Council specifically has worries about local infrastructure to support the potential new homes:
Thatcham Town Council has previously advised West Berkshire Council (WBC), through the Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment site selection process, that it was opposed to the selection of NE Thatcham due to the potential scale and constraints on existing infrastructure. These constraints are a result of legacy issues related to Thatcham absorbing substantial new developments yet receiving little in the way of supporting infrastructure and services. As already recognised by WBC, Thatcham considerably underperforms other similar centres in terms of overall service provision and has chronic traffic congestion issues related to its geographic location.
You can read the Thatcham Town Council document in full here.
