Late last year, I spoke at the well attended Wokingham Borough Council extraordinary meeting about Elms Field. You can find a full video of it made by one of Wokingham’s residents on Youtube and it is quite revealing into the processes of Wokingham Borough Council.(My questions are about 1. hour 31 in) I am also left wondering how many of these councillors do any real shopping, nowadays?

The debate was supposed to be politically indifferent, but I have long felt that the

Tories were inextricably linking the Elms Field development part to the whole Wokingham Town Centre Regeneration Project and were blaming the Liberal Democrats for supporting the protestors. They probably have to back it as a lot of money has already been spent on it. Unfortunately for them, we could see that there was overwhelming disquiet about building Elms Field coming from all corners, even without our help. We were just willing to listen.

It seems that selling the developments on the Elms Field land & properties was the key part of the plan to pay for the regeneration. Each component was not able to financially support itself alone and the repayment ideas do not seem very sound as it depends on being able to sell ALL the properties and rent out the stores at high rates. I also feel that this plan has been too rigid and moving so slowly that it has not adapted to the fact that in the mean time the world of shopping has changed.

Not long after the event and during the Christmas period, the planning application was withdrawn for review…I suspect it will stay quiet until after the Local Elections in May….

So, using all the public feedback we had received, this left the local Liberal Democrat Councillors set about proposing an alternate strategy. This was presented by Prue Bray at the last full council meeting and you can read what she wrote  about it here . But, in the interest of freedom of information, Wokingham Borough Council is now releasing its own meeting videos, so you can even watch what was said  here , about 16 minutes in.

The plan is still in draft and we would totally expect it to be under regular review, but basically it begins with the following:

NOT building housing on Elms Field, but investing in it and creating a modern space for everyone to use.

NOT borrowing £98 Million that Wokingham Borough Council Tax Payers will be paying for, for years.

NOT closing two ground level public car-parks in the town.

NOT stopping the town’s much needed makeover and providing enough money to do the job.

NOT building a supermarket where no-one wants it, but proposing an in demand modern alternative ‘Dark Store’ that will still provide jobs & services in a more suitable location.

Developing and supporting our Market and other small businesses in the town including giving them access to extra services needed in the modern digital shopping world.

Finding a better, but near-by space for the hotel.

Building a small amount of good housing on the brown field area to help support the regeneration.

Including some affordable housing in the town centre.

It has to downscale the original plan a little, but I feel it is much more reasonable approach in the current financial climate and it will help us both develop and preserve the finer aspects of our town and prepare it for the future in a more progressive way.  Lets see if the local Tories are willing to adopt any of it….