Bracknell Forest Council vote in favour of 10,780 new houses.

“This is only the start of the protest”

Over 200 protesters turned up tonight at a meeting of the full council to discuss the adoption of the SADPD (Site Allocations Development Plan Document) i.e. where they intend to build all of the new houses in Bracknell Forest. The plan includes massive development in Binfield, Warfield and Crowthorne and will transform these villages into urban extensions of Bracknell.

The Council is ignoring the views of over 2,700 residents who have signed a petition requesting the council to reconsider their proposals.

In a breathtaking act of pure hypocracy, the full Council voted in favour of developing over 10,500 new houses in Binfield, Warfield and Crowthorne.

Why would this by hypocritical? Well the majority of Councilors actually voted on a subject that they had never seen before as it had only been published two days before and is over 900 pages in length. It has been calculated that the average reader would take at least 4 days reading 24 hours a day to get through this tome and, just for our Councilors information, it is pitted with errors and has missing details.

Only seven Councilors had the courage to vote against the motion and  special mention is deserved of Cllrs Ian Leake (Binfield with Warfield), Robert McLean(Warfield Harvest Ride), John Harrison (Binfield with Warfield), Cliton Thomson (Warfield Harvest Ride) and Dr Barnard (Warfield Harvest Ride), all of whom gave impassioned speeches against the proposal. The others who voted against were  Cllrs Baily (Hanworth) and Cllr Sergeant (Bullbrook).

The most hypocritical Councilors speaking in favour of the proposal included Cllr Ballin (Winkfield), Bettison (Sandhurst), Finch (Priestwood & Garth), Birch (Sandhurst), Temperton (Great Hollands), Finnie (Crowthorne), and Wade (Crowthorne). Well you residents of Crowthorne, you now know what your elected representatives think of you.

To demonstrate the sheer sloppiness of of this most undemocratic event Cllr Ballin summed up the motion by saying that “This is only the start of the protest (she meant process)”  Well you are right Mrs Ballin, this is the start of the protest.