Reading West MP, Martin Salter, presented a 1500 signature petition to the House of Commons on Wednesday (2^nd April) calling on the Planning Minister to delete the Kennet Meadows in Southcote, Coley Park, Calcot and Katesgrove from the draft South-East Plan.

This is the area covered by the controversial Prudential proposals to build 7,500 homes in the functional floodplain of the River Kennet in south west Reading.

Back in January Labour councillor Pete Ruhemann (Southcote), Lib Dem councillor Royce Longton (Burghfield), and Martin Salter MP wrote a joint letter to the Housing and Planning Minister challenging the Panel recommendations and pointing out that any attempt to build on the functional floodplain would not only put Reading at risk of flooding in the future, but would run contrary to at least two published national planning policies and the views of the government’s own Highways Agency.

In their letter they said:

“These highly contentious plans were withdrawn in November 2006 following a major objection from the Environment Agency who have described them as putting Reading town centre at risk of flooding. The Environment Agency have defined the whole of the development area as falling within the “functional floodplain based on our interpretation of PPS 25

We were therefore amazed that the recent report by the Panel examining the South-East Plan recommended that Kennet Valley Park should be included as a Strategic Development Area capable of accommodating “7,500 houses without damage to the environmental assets of the sub-region and having regard to infrastructure and constraints”.

This is clearly complete nonsense given the location of this Wildlife Heritage Site within the functional floodplain and the objection by the EA which has been endorsed at national level.

The petition signatures were gathered over the last six weeks by Labour councillors for Southcote and Minister Wards and environmental and wildlife groups from the Reading and Burghfield Areas.

Southcote Councillor Deborah Edwards said:

“The strength of local feeling is shown in the number of signatures that we were able to gather in just a few short weeks. Local people in Southcote and the surrounding areas have seen for themselves just how effective the Kennet Meadows are in storing floodwater which would otherwise end up in their homes further downstream if the developers were allowed to get their way.”

Martin Salter MP said:

“I’m delighted but not at all surprised by the support that our campaign has attracted, the next stage will be when the government announces its formal response to the Panel recommendations and I am hoping that they will delete the whole of the Kennet Water Meadows from any list of potential development areas. This would force Prudential back to the drawing board.”