I shall be grateful if you will provide (within the statutory timescale of 20 working days) under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the following information relating to Home Farm, Winnersh.

1. All correspondence between the Council and Representatives (and /or neighbouring properties); pre-application documentations and responses.

Pre-application advice was requested by the agent, Boyer Planning on behalf of Luff Developments Ltd on 10th April 2017 in respect of potential development of the site. However, the pre-application was effectively closed in February 2019 following engagement between the agent and the case officer. Therefore, no response to the pre-application was issued by the council to the applicant’s agent.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 includes a presumption in favour of disclosure of information, including pre-application discussions. In line with guidance published by the Local Government Association and Planning Advisory Service ‘The Pre-application Suite’ (2014), the pre-application documentation cannot be considered for release as no formal application has been submitted by the applicant/agent.

Regarding the local plan process, the site has been actively promoted by the agent, Boyer Planning on behalf of Countryside Properties through its preparation.

The site was first submitted to the Council through a ‘Call for Sites’ process undertaken in January 2016 (see attachment A). Subsequently, the site (ref: 5WI007 – Home Farm, Bearwood Road) was identified and assessed in the Council’s Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) (2020), which is available to view and access on the Council website at:

https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/planning-policy/planning-policy-information/draft-local-plan-consultation/?categoryesctl91f252ff-550d-4cfa-a838-92ef2cb5f83c=10726

Responses were also submitted by the site promoter and agent to the Draft Local Plan consultation, which was undertaken from 3 February 2020 to 5 April 2020. Responses were sent by email on 17 March 2020 (see attachment B) and 31 March 2020 (see attachment C) which continued to promote the site for residential development. Following the close of the consultation, there has been no further dialogue relating to the local plan process.

You can view where land has been promoted as being potentially available for development via the interactive map. A list of promoted land is also available to download. Both are available to view and access on the Council website at:

https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/planning-policy/planning-policy-information/local-plan-update/

2. All file notes; emails, documents etc published and unpublished relating to point (1) above.
See response to Question 1 above and attached documentation.