 'Shop shop hooray' as district centre gets go-ahead
We’ve agreed long-awaited proposals for shops and green space along with a pub, community centre, playground, allotments and other amenities in Arborfield Green.
Our planning committee has unanimously approved the scheme, to be built on a 10.6-hectare plot near Bohunt School and the leisure centre. It will serve the new community being built on the former Arborfield Garrison site.
The district centre will include a pedestrianised high street and public square and 18 commercial units, plus space for a pre-school, a day nursery, public house and a community building.
There’ll be 206 new homes, including affordable ones, and the centre is set to include a supermarket which Sainsbury’s wants to run. This is subject to contract and a separate planning application, expected soon.
Building will take about three years but the first shops should open about 18 months after work starts. Anyone interested in commercial space should contact the developer Crest Nicholson, who are providing the centre.
 More details to follow - and what happens next
Crest plans to start work in 2024 and once roads, footpaths and utilities are in place, the first phase including more than half the commercial units will follow.
The community centre, based next to the leisure centre, could include a cafe, library, auditorium, nursery, multi-purpose spaces and outdoor seating.
Discussions will take place on the exact details. Meanwhile, the new pub will be built to the north of the high street, overlooking the new village green.
Sainsbury’s intend to run the supermarket as a "neighbourhood hub" store offering an additional "click and collect" service so it can offer more products. This is subject to contract and a separate planning application, expected soon.
The centre should take about three years to finish but the first shops are likely to open about 18 months after construction starts.
 Thanks for your patience after covid delays
We know this project has been delayed, due largely to the impact of coronavirus, but we’ve worked closely with Crest for more than two years to move it forward.
The pandemic affected the viability of projects like this because supermarkets stopped looking to expand, instead focusing on protecting existing branches.
With conditions improving, Crest held a pre-application consultation earlier this year and revised its plans based on feedback before staging another in the autumn.
With the finer points now refined, the finished build should hugely improve life in this community and meet people’s shopping needs closer to home.
It will reduce the need for car travel or supermarket deliveries and increase walking and cycling opportunities. This helps to reduce air pollution, carbon emissions and traffic congestion and improve people's health.
 What else is on the horizon for Arborfield Green
The former Infirmary Stables, a scheduled monument to the north of the district centre, are set to be brought back into use.
Work has been undertaken to protect them from the elements until the next steps are decided and more should be announced next year.
Crest are also preparing updated drawings for new sports facilities at Arborfield Green and expects to submit these to us soon.
It submitted a detailed planning application earlier this year and is amending it following residents’ feedback and independent design guidance.
Outline permission for the district centre and sports facilities was awarded as part of a 2015 planning application for 2,000 new homes in this area.
These were allocated as part of our local plan, a long-term strategy produced to meet local housing need and Government requirements.
Images: Murdoch Wickham
 All clear for Bohunt sixth form expansion
Bohunt Wokingham School in Arborfield Green is set to expand with a new 300-place sixth form and 150 additional places for 11- to 16-year-olds.
This project is a partnership with the Bohunt Education Trust and both of us recently agreed to increase our financial contributions.
The sixth form will create 300 more places in the borough's rural south, which currently lacks one. Most Bohunt students currently move on to colleges outside the borough, so this will allow more of them to study near home.
The new under-16s spaces will help more children living near the school to be admitted when the need for secondary places is rapidly growing.
The expansion also includes a commitment to further improve the school’s facilities for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Bohunt Wokingham was the borough's first new secondary school in over 50 years when it opened in 2016. It was funded by developer contributions, as was the relocated Farley Hill Primary School which opened in 2021.
 Community's green vision now has weight
We’ve adopted Finchampstead’s neighbourhood plan after it passed a referendum among local residents.
This is a vision drawn up by the community for how the parish, which includes the southern part of the Arborfield Garrison major development, should evolve.
It’s now an official planning document so, along with our own policies, it will guide how we decide planning applications for that area in future.
Its policies aim to ensure that new development makes a “positive contribution to the local character” while protecting important areas of countryside.
This includes support for safer walking, cycling and horse riding connections to reduce car usage and address concerns about traffic congestion.
Our Wokingham Borough Connect newsletters are a great way to find out more about what's going on around the borough, from Rubbish and Recycling or Traffic and Travel to What's On, Sport, Leisure and Health and more.
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