Harvest Hill 215-home plan not well-received by parish council

Bray Parish Council raised a number of objections to plans for homes around Harvest Hill and Kimbers Lane – a key area near the Maidenhead golf course site.

Land south of Harvest Hill Road in Maidenhead, off Kimbers Lane has been earmarked for development in the Borough Local Plan.

It forms part of the ‘South West Maidenhead’ development area covering the golf course and surrounding green spaces.

Taylor Wimpey UK Ltd is looking to pitch in 215 homes, ranging from one-bedroom apartments to five-bedroom houses.

At a meeting of Bray Parish Council (BPC) on Monday, councillors mentioned that they did not like the flats proposals, among other concerns.

Councillor Robert Tavinor (Holyport) raised concerns over the roads and other infrastructure.

“It will just never cope with the extra traffic – 200 houses could be 400 more vehicles,” he said.

“The infrastructure isn’t there. It doesn’t drain – who would propose building houses there? It doesn’t make any sense.”

But parish councillors acknowledged that, at this point, building on this site was likely to go ahead because of the BLP despite such concerns.

As such, the parish council must instead look at other elements they can object to, such as the number of homes being proposed or the building heights.

Cllr Louvaine Kneen, BPC’s chairman of planning, said the flood team ‘have some additional enquiries – unsurprisingly and after the weather recently and the flooding in the area’.

There were also concerns over the compound impact of the approval for the expansion of the Kimbers Lane waste transfer station.

A large expansion of the waste processing facility is set to go ahead after the owners won an appeal against the Royal Borough.

The expansion will see the inert, household, commercial and industrial waste transfer station in Kimbers Lane able to process five times as much waste, from 5,000 tonnes up to 25,000.

The expansion is expected to cause 30-50 movements by HGVs per day, compared to the current six to eight daily movements.

“I find it difficult to believe they think there wouldn’t be any additional impact [on traffic],” said Cllr Kneen.

Chairman of BLP Cllr Ken Elvin also raised concerns over the Braywick Roundabout and need for it to be upgraded, as there is already congestion around it, likely to worsen with this development.

“Without more information, we have grounds to refuse this,” he said.

Cllr Chris Graham (Bray Village) raised concerns that the new properties would be out of keeping within the context of the area.

“This is a very low-quality development,” he said.

“It’s full of small properties in an area with much larger houses. It’s a completely inappropriate style.”

There were further concerns over impacts on air quality from traffic, housing density, parking issues, the sufficiency of the access point and the lack of public transport in the area.

The plans were recommended for refusal.