Stop the ‘urbanisation’ of rural West Berkshire!

Proposals for more housebuilding and a so-called ‘solar farm’ on the Berkshire-Hampshire boundary have been condemned by local countryside campaigners.

The Berkshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is opposing development schemes on both side of the border – a planning application to West Berkshire Council by Donnington New Homes for 360 houses at New Warren Farm south of Newbury and a proposal submitted to Basingstoke and Deane Council in Hampshire for a large-scale solar energy development close to the sensitive landscape of Watership Down, made famous by local author Richard Adams.

CPRE Berkshire believes that the combination of housing developments already approved in this environmentally sensitive area, together with these new schemes for housing and energy infrastructure, will bring about “an unacceptable urbanisation and industrialisation of an important rural landscape” with far-reaching consequences for local wildlife and for the quality of life of local communities.

Greg Wilkinson, Chairman of CPRE Berkshire, has written to the head of planning at West Berkshire Council stating the countryside charity’s view that “the scale of development now proposed for the area is excessive and will do irreparable harm to the local environment.”

In CPRE Berkshire’s letter of objection to the application by Donnington New Homes, Mr Wilkinson expresses CPRE’s concern about “development encroachment on this peaceful rural area and the impact on ancient woodlands and important local wildlife habitats,” as well as highlighting the problem of increased traffic and pollution, and the negative impact on views to and from the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

He notes that the celebrated writer and defender of the countryside, Richard Adams, author of the novel Watership Down, had expressly opposed housing development on this site, known as Sandleford Park, shortly before his death in 2016, and that in his 1972 novel it was Sandleford Warren that was threatened with destruction by developers in the opening chapter, providing a key storyline for the book and subsequent (1978 and 2018) films. “Approval of this planning application,” Mr Wilkinson writes, “would be an example of fiction becoming reality.”

There have been several planning applications to West Berkshire and Basingstoke and Deane councils in recent years for more than a thousand new homes on adjoining areas of countryside in the vicinity of Watership Down. “Together with this latest application for houses, and the proposal that has been put forward to Basingstoke and Deane for a major ‘solar farm’, we are facing a perfect storm of countryside-wrecking development,” says Mr Wilkinson.

“If this is tidal wave of development is not halted, we will see an unacceptable urbanisation and industrialisation of an important rural landscape on the county boundary. I hope that West Berkshire Council will recognise the dangers and will act to protect the countryside of Watership Down and its surrounding areas of woodland and open space.”

CPRE is encouraging local residents to contact West Berkshire Council and register their objections to Planning Application 23/01585/OUTMAJ (Sandleford Park West, New Warren Farm, Warren Road, Newbury RG14 6NH). CPRE Berkshire works to promote, protect and enhance the countryside of the Royal County, primarily through engagement with the planning system and local communities. For information of CPRE’s work in Berkshire please email cpreberkshire@btopenworld.com or visit the website www.cpreberkshire.org.uk.