This piece of land along Warfield Street in Berkshire was originally an Orchard of the main house Newall Hall.  The listed building was a care home and in 2001 was sold to be split into 14 apartments.  The landowner, a housing charity retained the orchard land.  In 2017 they looked at various options to develop the land.  We were approached for an opinion.  

This site had been left to its own devises for over 20 to 30 yeares.  Only a few fruit trees were left, but they were almost dead too.  The site had 4 Ash trees which were suffering from Ash dieback disease.  There were around 2000 self-seeded young trees and laurel.

There was also a listed wall that was part of Newall Hall next door.  There was an old gate fixed to the wall and this was the only place we could access the site from, due to the bend in the road.  

We were already involved in several developments in the area and knew the poor position of Bracknell Forest regarding their land supply situation.  This land is within the green belt, but adjacent to land allocated for 2000 homes and which has already been deemed highly sustainable.  Given that Bracknell Forest could not demonstrate a 5YHLS or enough Care homes for its aging population, over the next 10 years, Central government has policies in place, which allow for land outside the settlement, do be considered for development. 

This was a very well thought out and achievable planning permission.  However, after 2 applications and an appeal and hundreds of thousands pounds spent in the pursuit of a C2 consent – we were not successful in our aims. 

This argument can be used in other areas up and down the country in local authorities which cannot demonstrate a land supply for C2 or C3.