Progress is being made on the Bracknell Forest Local Plan which will see thousands of new homes being built in the area over the next 15 years.

The draft Local Plan was submitted in December last year, and is currently being reviewed by Louise Nurser and David Troy from the Government’s planning inspectorate.

If it is approved, it would see approximately 3,700 new homes built, with the majority focused in four locations: Jealotts Hill, The Peel Centre, Beaufort Park and Derby Park in Crowthorne.

But before the plan is approved, it has to go through a review process by the planning inspectorate to make sure it is legal and deliverable.

The council’s head of planning Max Baker has been asked to answer the inspector’s initial questions over the plan.

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One of the questions is centred around the issue of whether the Plan will be able to deliver a five-year supply.

A five-year land supply is determined by whether enough sites are allocated for development to provide five years worth of housing in a local authority area, against the number of houses that Government requires a local authority to build.

Bracknell Forest currently has a 4.2 year land supply, with the inspectors questioning whether enough sites have been allocated so that the council can have a five year land supply in the years the plan will be in action, which will go to 2037.

Not having a five year land supply allows developers to submit plans for housing development in unallocated places and have a higher likelihood of getting approval.

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The inspectors also urged Bracknell Forest Council to publish the ‘Wokingham Statement of Common Ground’.

This ‘statement of common ground’ defines aims which planners at Bracknell Forest Council and its neighbour Wokingham Borough Council agree on.

One of the aims which the two councils agree on include the maintenance of a ‘strategic gap’ between Bracknell and Binfield and Wokingham to prevent sprawl.

However, Wokingham Borough Council has raised concerns about the increase in traffic in 2037, the completion year of the plan, particularly at the junction of Old Wokingham Road and Waterloo Road.

So far, only a draft statement of ‘common ground’ has been published, with the inspectors stating that the statement is still ‘outstanding’ and needs to be agreed and published.

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The inspectors are now awaiting the council’s head of planning to respond to the issues raised and answer their questions.

You can read their questions in full here. 

The inspectors are then hoping to conduct hearings on the plan in May, which will be held at a venue in Bracknell.

Once the inspectors are satisfied with the Local Plan, it can be adopted by the council and used to shape development in Bracknell Forest until 2037.

The inspectors sent their initial questions to the council on Tuesday, February 8.