Consultation allows residents to submit feedback on Borough Local Plan

Changes to the Borough Local Plan (BLP) were discussed at a public meeting at Legoland last week.

Windsor councillors Helen Price (The Borough First) and Jon Davey (West Windsor Residents Association) organised the meeting to help residents submit their responses to the plan, which earmarks sites in the borough for development until 2033.

The plan has been amended to address concerns raised by the planning inspector.

Consultation about the plan, which seeks to create 14,000 new homes, will close on Sunday, December 15.

At the meeting on Thursday, November 14, Cllr David Coppinger (Con, Bray), cabinet member for planning, said: “We submitted [the original plan] to the inspector in January 2018, so as you can see it is a long process.”

The inspector had listed flooding and employment space in the original plan as an area of concern.

Cllr Coppinger said: “The problem is the environment agency had not released the latest flood plan and so we submitted the first plan without the knowledge we should have had. Now a number of sites have to be re-assessed.”

This means any proposed development areas in Flood Zone three can no longer be used as the areas are too high risk.

In the meeting, Cllr Lynne Jones (Ind, Old Windsor) said the amended plan did not address the impact of a third runway, if Heathrow succeeds with its expansion.

She said: “If Heathrow expands, the A308 would be one of the most affected roads outside the airport. Add that to extra houses and we are seriously in trouble.”

Residents can submit their feedback online on the Royal Borough website or to the council direct by emailing blp@rbwm.gov.uk