Concerns raised over too-close-to-Christmas major Cookham meeting

Frustrations have been raised about a crucial meeting on plans for nearly 200 homes in Cookham and its sudden cancellation last week.

The Maidenhead development management committee meeting last Thursday would have heard two applications on land at Lower Mount Farm (ref 23/02019 and 23/02022).

These proposals have been widely panned for multiple reasons, including parking, traffic and overdevelopment issues affecting infrastructure.

Dick Scarff from the Cookham Society told the Advertiser that the society was ‘fairly cross’ to discover that the meeting was being scheduled for November 21.

No one got wind it was going to the November panel until it was on the agenda, he said.

RBWM generally puts documents up on its public meeting calendar about a week in advance.

As such, there was a sudden rush from the Cookham Society to prepare its arguments.

RBWM ward councillor Mark Howard (Lib Dem) said this date did come as ‘reasonably unexpected’ and ‘a bit soon’ given the scale of the development and concerns about them.

But ultimately, the meeting was cancelled on the day. The Cookham Society says it received a notice from RBWM reading:

“I write to inform you that both cases – 23/02019 and 23/02022 – Land at Lower Mount Farm, Cookham will NOT be heard this Thursday 21th Nov at Planning Committee.

“Both cases have been officially deferred until the December 19th 2024 Committee date. This is due an internal computer error that failed to send out re-consultation letters when expected.”

Cllr Howard explained that only some relevant parties were made aware of the meeting on November 21, while others were not.

Thus, the only option was to ‘start again’, ie scrap the meeting and schedule in a new date.

Cookham figures are now concerned about the new meeting date, given that it is so close to Christmas.

Cllr Howard said it was an 'odd’ choice, which he has raised to chair of the panel.

“Doing planning things the week before Christmas doesn't stand up as transparent,” he said. “Not everyone's mind's 100 per cent on the job.”

Cllr Bill Perry of Cookham Parish Council also thinks this is ‘far from ideal’ given Christmas holiday absences and ‘pre-Christmas pressure on everybody.’

Moreover, he raised concerns over how the meeting will go, when it finally comes around in December, given the meeting rules.

Cllr Perry said that the parish council will get three minutes to speak and the rest of the residents who wish to speak will get three minutes between them on each application.

“With the best will in the world, three minutes is not remotely enough to respond to the points that have been raised,” he said.

Moreover, this is essentially on a 'first come first served’ basis, he said – if there are multiple people applying, the first person that applies will get the whole three minutes.

“[That’s] regardless of [whether] who comes first is the best qualified expert,” he said. “We find that not ideal.

“There will be lots of people who want to talk about this. It is almost certain that you will have some highly motivated, highly expert member of the public that won't be able to speak.”

At the time of publication, RBWM responded to the Advertiser’s request for comment only to confirm that the meeting issues were caused by an IT error.