This development relates to land between Old Forest Road and Toutley Road (part of the North Wokingham Distributor Road), behind Toutley Hall. The land was identified for development as part of the Draft Local Plan, although this is currently under review by central government, so WBC officers have advised that this application will be largely considered based on provisions with the WBC Core Strategy and associated planning guidance.
An application, for a development comprising 53 properties, was submitted on 25 Jun 2025, following a brief period of pre-application consultation with neighbouring residents. ERA was not invited directly to contribute to the pre-application consultation, but we did make a submission, which can be seen as part of our initial submission to the planning application.
The applicant also carried out a more extensive consultation with planning officers (Dec 2024 to May 2025), principally related to the size and layout of the development, which saw several changes to the layout and reduction in numbers of properties. The number of properties was also slightly reduced following the resident consultation. Neither local residents nor ERA were invited to contribute during this more detailed pre-application consultation; a matter ERA has raised a formal complaint to WBC about.
The application reference is 251421, and further details of the application can be found on the Wokingham Planning Application Site.
Status update (Feb 2026)
Since our initial submission in Jul 2025, ERA has worked closely with neighbouring residents to consider and respond to further details produced by the applicant, and to expedite with the WBC planning officer consideration of those concerns raised by ERA and residents. During this period ERA also raised a number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests in an attempt to establish more details around the pre-application consultation and input from WBC’s internal consultees. This all culminated in a number of further submissions by the applicant in Jan/Feb 2026, and WBC re-opening the formal consultation phase. In close liaison with neighbouring residents, ERA submitted a further response to the planning application on 18 Feb 2026 which can be viewed here.
ERA engagement (May to Jul 2025)
Noting the site is included within the Local Plan (although yet to be adopted), and the size and layout of the development was the subject of several stages of consultation with planning officers, the ERA does not have substantive issues with or comments on the principal of development on this site or the size and layout of the development.
However, the application proposes that the site is accessed from Old Forest Road, rather than the NWDR. ERA consider that access from the NWDR is the only viable and sustainable option, and has significant concerns over the applicant’s plans to access the site from Old Forest Road. Our response to the application, has therefore focused on the proposed access road, and recommends that officers reject the current proposals due to the multiple concerns and non-compliances with accessing the development from Old Forest Road.
Our initial response, regarding the compliance of the documentation, was submitted on 30 Jun 2025, and our full response to the application was submitted on 7 Jul 2025.