20/06/2013: Some residents may have received leaflets from developers promoting development sites around Hook. At the time of writing, the Parish Council is aware of three such sites:-
- land at Reading Road (north of John Morgan Close) – the developers are Banner Gleeson
- land north of Seton Drive (accessed from Hop Garden Road) – the developers are Charles Church
- land adjacent to Brown Croft – the developers are Taylor Wimpey
Others may yet come forward. All the developers are trying to take advantage of the “100 further dwellings on sites yet to be identified” allocation in the local plan.
The Parish Council’s position, as stated in our response to the Local Plan consultation, is that an appropriate figure for housing development for Hook would be about 200 houses. Since there is a major site allocated for 500 dwellings already, these additional sites would be excessive and the Parish Council will object to their inclusion.
However, there are substantial benefits to our community which could come on the back of these developments, so the Parish Council is in negotiations with all the developers to ensure that, should any permissions being granted despite our objections, those benefits are as large as possible, meet our needs and come directly to Hook for the use of our community. If the Parish Council does not negotiate with the developers in this way, then if the development is subsequently imposed upon us, Hook could end up with nothing except the houses. The negotiations are solely about the benefits – not about the principle of development.