Today marks the first anniversary of Crowthorne Chaos when 120 people turned up to a meeting at Pinewood to discuss the proposed Bewley Homes Development on the Charities Woodlands (Fuel Allotment for those with memories of the last battle(s)!). A year ago we suspected that the full implications of the proposed Bewley development were not widely understood by local residents, (who given the facts are perfectly capable of making their own mind up) and set out to share what we knew and investigate what we didnt. A year later we have nearly 500 members on this site so were proud to provide the information that was so patently missing and to mobilise significant objections to both application and also prevented the removal of the Tree Protection Order on the woodlans. Weve also discovered that the problems are far deeper than we first imagined - its not just about the houses (most people get that we need new houses), its that without a corresponding investment in infrastructure (roads, schools, health, drainage, water etc.) then our Crowthorne community is threatened with Chaos. We have also learned that locally our infrastructure is already close to breaking (as anyone who drives along Nine Mile Ride or Old Wokingham Road will tell you, or is trying to get their kids into local schools..). The regular and widely known flooding issues (widely known except apparently by the developer and the Council until residents pointed these out) and recently frequent power cuts are also clear indicators that something needs to give. Fix the infrastructure then add new houses to match isnt a hard concept to grasp. We were proud that teenagers at the recent Edgbarrow school hustings pressed our prospective MP candidates on this very point. Out of the mouths of babes... Some of these issues are local - but read the news and many are repeated all over the country. Crowthorne is full of intelligent people who want to understand whats going on and what the proposed solutions are. Maybe some of these solutions are politically unthinkable (e.g. leaving the car at home more often) but we need to start having intelligent and grown-up discussions about the kind of community / services we want to hand on to our children and grand children. These are big, hard questions of course - perfect for both a general election and Borough councillors from both Bracknell and Wokingham Boroughs up for re-election in May. You will recall that this is the time in the Electoral cycle when we magically morph from being ignorant tax-payers to intelligent voters. So now is a good time to start asking big, hard questions. And not be fobbed off with But you see, we cant influence what they do... answers. And the woodlands? Well its still under discussion at both Wokingham and Bracknell Planning departments - you will hear as soon as we do. Were not done - the battle has only just started and with so much at stake, we urge you to stay the course as we all fight to keep Crowthorne one of the best places to live. Ive got to know many fantastic people in Crowthorne this year, and have learned a huge amount from them all. But the most telling contribution came from a local primary school child when it was explained that people were planning to chop the trees down in the woods so that people could live in new houses. Who he said, is going to build new houses for all the animals that live in the woods now? With intelligent kids like this, Crowthorne has a great future. Help us make the community fit for them.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:35:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015