A threat that has hung over Kennet Meadows since late 2002 has been lifted with news that PRUPIM, the Prudential's property arm and a major land-owner, has decided "the project is no longer capable of delivering appropriate levels of return to its investors, bearing in mind the risk involved".
That decision, communicated in an email (see below) from PRUPIM Director of Property Development David Morris to Reading Borough Council's Chief Executive, follows the dropping of Kennet Valley Park from the South East Plan after a major campaign led by Martin Salter MP and local Labour Councillors. The consortium between Prudential and other local land-owners - Tarmac, Hanson, Cemex and Bucknell Brothers - is being dissolved.
Martin Salter says: " This is the best leaving present that I could hope for as I prepare to step down as MP for Reading West - the area most at risk from flooding if the KVP proposals had ever seen the light of day. It has been a long , hard fight but I had a feeling that the developers would throw in the towel once we were successful in getting the site deleted from the South East Plan "
Southcote Councillor Pete Ruhemann, who has been campaigning alongside local people to protect Kennet Meadows for almost 25 years, is wholly delighted at the news. He says: "Until we ran that campaign, no Minister had ever over-ruled an enquiry and taken an area out of a regional plan, and I think when we won the developers finally realised they just could not get their scheme through. To all the people who helped with the petition and to the many local groups who backed the campaign, can I just say it was worth it!"
And fellow-Councillor John Ennis says: "The immediate threat is now over, I think for some time, but the campaign we launched last year to make Kennet Meadows a trust to give it long-term protection is on-going. Leader of the Council Jo Lovelock has asked Reading's Chief Executive to request a meeting with Prudential and the other land-owners to take this further and I hope that will take place soon."
Excerpt from email from David Morris to Michael Coughlin 5.3.2010:
As discussed, I took over the running of the Development Team here at PRUPIM in June last year; since then I have been working closely with Prudential Assurance Company Limited (PAC) to reassess its ongoing strategic land commitments, including Kennet Valley Park (KVP) or Kennet Meadows as you may know it.
As an important and key stakeholder in the Reading Area and (more particularly), someone who has shown great personal interest in the KVP project over the years, I thought it was important that we extended the courtesy of conveying directly to you some important news about the future of the project.
PAC has taken onboard the fact that South West Reading SDA failed to secure an allocation in the newly published South East Plan (SEP), but PAC's main concerns have more recently focused on the long-term commercial viability of the project.
The Fund has now concluded that the project is no longer capable of delivering appropriate levels of return to its investors, bearing in mind the risk involved.
To conclude, therefore, a formal notice has now been served by PAC to terminate the Consortium Landowners Agreement (made between PAC, Tarmac, Hanson, Cemex and Bucknell Brothers), which brings the collaboration between those parties on this project to a close.
PAC now intends to examine ways in which it can dispose of its land holdings within the KVP project area, as they are clearly no longer of any strategic importance. To be clear, activities at Green Park remain unaffected.
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