 Welcome to your community newsletter
Welcome to your regular North Wokingham major development newsletter, which is published on Tuesday evenings every eight weeks, and to the first edition of 2022.
This is typically a quiet time of year but we still have some important updates to share with you, including the recent end of our Local Plan Update consultation, and we hope you'll enjoy finding out more.
Our Wokingham Borough Connect email newsletters cover a range of topics, from local event listings to the latest on rubbish and recycling and much more. You can sign up using the button below.
 Food shop to open within weeks
We're delighted to announce that a Co-op food store will be opening at the new North Wokingham neighbourhood centre off Queens Road on 24 February.
As well as offering residents a convenient place to do their weekly shop or pick up a few top-up essentials, the 430 sq m premises will create a number of full-time and part-time jobs for local people.
The neighbourhood centre also has two smaller shop units, with tenants to be confirmed at a later date, and flats above.
Construction was funded by contributions from developers building new homes in the area, which is an advantage of our preferred approach of allocating large areas of land for housing.
The opening will be followed on 3 March by the launch of another Co-op at the neighbourhood centre off William Heelas Way in Montague Park, on our major development at South Wokingham.
 Major road build still motoring ahead
Our North Wokingham Distributor Road, which will serve new homes being built in the area, is still on course for completion in late spring.
Balfour Beatty has just finished building a new bridge over the railway near the southern roundabout, at the end of the Winnersh Relief Road, and is now surfacing the road which crosses this.
The bridge will connect Reading Road with a new carriageway running parallel to the west of Old Forest Road.
Contractors are also realigning a section of Toutley Road to the north and have built a culvert over the Emm Brook stream so they're ready to start surfacing this too.
From next week, temporary traffic lights will be in place at the junction of Old Forest Road and Ashton Road while the final touches are put to new pavements installed a few months ago. This will only take place in the daytime, with no road closures.
Another section to the east near Ashridge Farm, which Balfour Beatty finished last year, remains closed for safety reasons as there is still a heavy volume of construction traffic from homes being built nearby.
This section, which also includes a new nature park with two ponds and an array of wildlife habitats, will open in the coming months. Thank you for your patience during these essential works, which will improve your journeys in the long term.
The North Wokingham Distributor Road will run from the Winnersh end of Reading Road to the junction of Oak Avenue and London Road, near Coppid Beech roundabout.
It's part of our £250 million major new roads scheme, which is funded by developer contributions.
 VIDEO: Tackling congestion across the borough
The North Wokingham Distributor Road is just one of many initiatives we've put in place to tackle congestion across Wokingham borough - and you can watch more in this video.
As well as investing in sustainable and active travel options like walking and cycling, we're rolling out a range of "smart" measures including traffic lights which can change how often they cycle based on how busy the roads are.
These have cameras which monitor traffic flows and can be updated manually or run to an automatic program. The data they record can also provide evidence if we need to make changes such as a new speed limit.
We'd like to thank the Department for Transport for providing £250,000 in funding towards this.
We're also working on variable message signs to deliver traffic updates at the roadside, helping motorists to make more sensible decisions, and much more - all part of our commitment to keep Wokingham borough moving.
 Local Plan Update - thanks for sharing your views
We recently finished consulting on a revised growth strategy for our Local Plan Update, which will outline where new housing and other forms of development - including ample community infrastructure - should go until 2038.
Many thanks to everyone who shared their views on the proposal, which includes a garden village of about 4,500 homes at Hall Farm/Loddon Valley between Shinfield, Arborfield and Sindlesham, as well as about 800 homes within the existing South Wokingham major development plus 2,700 or so across smaller sites.
This is similar to our current Local Plan, which allocates about 13,000 homes across four major developments at Shinfield parish, the former Arborfield Garrison and North and South Wokingham. It's due to provide about £1 billion in roads, schools, public green spaces and more.
We'll go through feedback and make some amendments, subject to a range of conditions including national planning policy, then put a revised proposal before our full council over the summer to prepare for another public consultation in the autumn.
This will be sent to a planning inspector, along with residents' comments, for independent examination.
We know not everyone is happy with the idea but we have to take new homes to meet Government requirements as well as allowing some natural growth to keep our borough vibrant and give future generations a chance to remain local.
To find out more about the pressures we face - and what we've done to meet your needs, while trying to keep development at a reasonable and sustainable level - visit our Building Communities the Wokingham Borough Way information page.
 New home builds making good progress
The construction of new housing in the Matthewsgreen area of North Wokingham is another step nearer completion.
We recently approved detailed plans for 19 homes on land to the north of Queen's Road, which is the last of the proposed schemes in this section of our new community to be given the go-ahead.
Neighbouring plots are either fully built or now under construction and the wider major development will have about 2,100 homes in total - including a generous amount of affordable housing in line with our Local Plan.
As in all four of our new communities, the developers are also required to pay significant contributions towards infrastructure including roads, schools and green spaces to serve residents.
Meanwhile Crest Nicholson has confirmed that 170 of the 225 homes it is building at Kentwood Farm West, off Keephatch Road, are now occupied.
This shows that we're meeting demand for new housing in Wokingham borough, allowing local residents to continue living and working in the area where they grew up.
 Nature park spotlight: Ashridge Meadows
This beautiful 10-hectare green space, spread across three fields, can be found to the north of the Eldridge Park development off Bell Foundry Lane in North Wokingham.
It has two wildlife ponds, both featuring a timber viewing deck and informal seating areas which allow visitors to enjoy the stunning landscape, reed beds and local flora and fauna.
There's also a picturesque wildflower meadow with species including daisies, buttercups and cowslip in the summer, as well as the "mound" - a raised area offering views of the whole park with benches, landscaped beds, a tunnel of woven willow and specially created wildlife habitats.
Families can stroll along the 2.3km footpath which winds around the site and includes two wooden bridges crossing the Emm Brook with a third crossing one of the ponds. There are several shortcuts for those seeking a shorter walk.
Entrance is off Bingham Drive and Eldridge Avenue.
Ashridge Meadows is one of many public green spaces measuring some 120 hectares, or more than 170 football pitches, created across Wokingham borough as a result of our strategic approach to development.
 New playgrounds coming soon
Our destination play area at Cantley Park is set to open to children of all ages in March, with a launch date to be confirmed soon.
The innovative new interactive play equipment, provided by Yalp, has been installed and surfacing has been laid, with only the final landscaping left to go.
The play area, funded by developers' contributions, will be wheelchair accessible and include kit designed to be as engaging as video gaming - but without time spent in front of a screen.
We know residents are keen to see this open as soon as possible, so we thank you for your patience and can't wait to announce more.
Meanwhile, we're set to build a new playground for the North Wokingham community on land off Queens Road in Matthewsgreen, near the neighbourhood centre.
Details are still being confirmed but it will include a multi-use games area (MUGA) suitable for a range of sports and various items of play equipment.
This has been planned for some time but, for safety reasons, we've been waiting for construction work to finish at the neighbourhood centre.
We hope it'll be ready this summer and we promise to keep you updated.
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