The people of the Wokingham District won a great victory in the planning battle a year ago. Most of my constituents think that the roads are already too busy, the green gaps too small, the schools and hospitals too stretched for us to fit in another big new settlement in the district.

We accept there will be re-developments, infilling, building on smaller sites, but we are adamant that the age of large scale construction should be over. The latest Inspector to judge a case agrees. He has accepted the argument I put with the active support and encouragement of many of you that there should not be a major new settlement south of the M4. He has rejected the District Council's idea that Grazeley could accommodate 2500 new homes. He agreed that Spencer's Wood and Shinfield should also be spared.

I was surprised that our Liberal District Council did not welcome this decision. They instead were unhappy, saying that now they would have to grant permission to take the extra houses on the green gaps between settlements, which would be worse than Grazeley. Why?

Think again

I urge them to think again. Surely they can see that the self same arguments which won the day for us south of the M4 apply to the green gaps north of the motorway. Let's make common cause against more large scale development wherever developers might now want to work in the district. Liberal and Labour politicians were shrill to oppose an extra 2,500 houses for Berkshire under a Conservative government. I agreed with them.

Now a Labour government is proposing a whopping extra 12,332 houses in the county over 16 years and there is a strange silence. So wake up our Council. If the people of Grazeley, Spencer's Wood and Shinfield can stop the bulldozers south of the M4, why can't our Council stop them elsewhere? There were faint hearts when the people of Grazeley battled on. Some in Spencer's Wood and Shinfield feared it would just push the development onto them. It did not do so. I cannot promise that we will win every major appeal, but I can promise you that we have no chance of winning if we do not all put our case vigorously and in unison.

Instead the Council is ploughing on with a new Plan for a further big increase in house building. If you disagree write and tell them so. Once the plan is finalised we will have the Council as well as the government against us everytime a planning application is lodged in an area the Council has marked down for more homes.

Delaying the concrete mixer

We will at the very least delay the concrete mixer, and may see it off altogether from the best green areas we still enjoy. What we now need is a Council which voices the feelings of the people of the District. Everyone I meet says new building only in moderation. Can the Council please catch up with our views?