Thames Water are going to appeal against Reading Council's rejection of their planning application for the Bath Road reservoir site, Labour has learned, but are waiting to do so until after the General Election on 6 May!
Labour candidate for Reading West Naz Sarkar says: "The latest date at which Thames Water could legally appeal is 11 May, so they are leaving it until the last possible moment. One wonders if, like Blue Living at Pincents Hill, they are hoping for a Conservative Government which would be more sympathetic to developers' priorities."
Mr Sarkar notes that Blue Living, whose planning application for 750 houses at Pincents Hill was rejected by West Berkshire Council in January this year, have said publicly that the West Berkshire Tories didn't dare let Pincents Hill through because Reading West is a marginal constituency they're trying to win from Labour.
"I think they are right," he says, "and I can see too why they're pinning their hopes on a Tory victory, for the Tories do have form. Shortly after the 1987 General Election Tory Secretary of State Nicholas Ridley allowed appeals for 600 houses at Bugs Bottom in Reading and at three other major sites in Berkshire! Thames Water, who were after all privatised by a Conservative Government, may well believe they would have an inside track to another Conservative Government happy to help them get maximum returns on their assets. I pledge, if elected on Thursday, to oppose Thames at the Public Inquiry and to lobby Ministers not to allow over-development of the site."
And Minster Labour Councillor Paul Gittings, who spoke against Thames' application at the Planning Committee, adds: "The Action Group and the local community have been asking to meet Thames to talk about the future of the site and try and reach agreement about what would be acceptable, but Thames have not been willing to talk and have just ploughed ahead with an appeal on a totally over-the-top scheme. Minster's Labour Councillors will be at the Inquiry too and will try to get the plans thrown out. Anything else would be the triumph of greed."
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