Major plans for more than 200 homes at a golf club in Reading have been submitted to the Council, to a mixed response.
Reading Golf Club (RGC) wants to develop 260 homes on part of its land in Caversham as well as a medical centre and new public green space.
The 100-year-old golf club, based in Kidmore End Road, has signed up developer Fairfax and housebuilder Redrow to deliver the family homes, which are planned at the south part of the site by Kidmore End Road.
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Neighbours attending a public exhibition in February slammed the plans as ‘utopian’ and ‘greedy’.
But the application has received mixed feedback, with an outpouring of comments both in for and against the plan on the Reading Borough Council planning portal.
Support has been sent in by 28 people, a mix of neighbours and golfers, while around 20 residents have taken to the planning portal to oppose the application so far.
RGC says the development will be sustainable, providing much-needed housing and community infrastructure with a high quality design and mix of housing, including affordable homes.
But the plans have been opposed by Keep Emmer Green, a campaign group which says the development is ‘unsustainable and will take up local green space at the expense of everybody who already lives, works and goes to school here’.
Additionally, Reading East MP Matt Rodda has expressed concern about the impact on residents and local traffic.
The developer anticipates the plan will take around five years to complete, starting in May 2021 and finishing in January 2026, with work taking place from 8am-6pm, Monday to Friday, and 8am-1pm on Saturdays.
Around a third of the homes, precisely 85, would be at social or affordable rates.
The homes would be a mix of houses and flats, with:
- 32 one-bed flats
- 24 two-bed flats
- 42 two-bed houses
- 81 three-bed houses
- 81 four-bed houses
There are 485 car parking spaces and 436 cycle spaces planned
The development will be solely on land in RBC, on about 30 acres of the 109-acre site owned by Reading Golf Club.
But plans for housing in South Oxfordshire part of the land have also been mooted previously.
Reading Golf Club is planning to move to and merge with Caversham Health Golf Club, allowing the rest of the Kidmoore End Road site to be transformed into housing.
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