Work on the Community Hub is progressing. The option agreement between the landowner, Mr Weavers and our developer, Thomas Homes, has been signed and confirmed. Now that this is in place, Thomas Homes is working on the detailed designs for the preschool, school and village hall, as well as the houses that will pay for them.
The developer has had to commit to buying more than the minimum land needed for the project as it left an unworkable strip for the farmer. However, this extra strip can come to the Parish Council for community use such as allotments for the school.
The project will not include fitting out and furniture etc. for any of the hub buildings – preschool, school and village hall – and it will be necessary to apply for grants to pay for this as soon as planning consent for the project is obtained.
Once the developer’s initial designs are completed there will be a village meeting to present the plans and to get feedback. Following amendments from the feedback, it is hoped to submit the full planning application to South Oxfordshire District Council at the end of the Summer.
Download the latest plan for the hub site here.
would just like to say ,if the village expands to the extent it looks like,as reading university is going to also be able to build at the top of our street???Are we going to get a bus service a useable one for working people to be able to use for work times and our pensioners to be able to use their bus passes which at the moment are useless!!!!!!!And the long promised shop!!!!!!OR JUST THE HOUSES!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for your comment. It is true that Reading University has approached the parish council but there are currently no proposals from them to build more houses.
The parish council has lobbied for a bus service – for example exploring the possibility of expanding the new route to the North East Didcot development. We have even explored the possibility of running a community bus. Very few people responded to our survey saying they would use a bus. Our current view is that, even with subsidies, a bus service would not be viable. Our main hope is that we are included in new bus routes to serve other developments, for example the expansion of Culham.
We are currently exploring possible designs for the new village hall. A group of residents has been to see what other village halls locally have to offer. We hope the new hall will be able to provide a cafe including space for home workers. Other villages tell us that it is hard to make a shop viable, so we plan to start small, for example a regular village market and build on this according to demand.
Good that the Hub Plan is now available for all to see. As this will (hopefully) become of increasing interest to the village please could it be made more easy to find – by, for example, including it on the Parish Council drop-down menu. Currently the only way I have found to arrive here is via the Search facility on the Home page – perhaps I have missed something/link?
On the subject of the plan itself, whilst anything is better than nothing, a better resolution plan would be good and also one that had more details of the school and village hall suggested layout plus a key for the type/size of houses – if available.
Thanks for your help, Richard