Luff Developments attack on Blue Mountain

Luff Developments through their planning consultants Boyer Planning Ltd are increasing the pressure on Bracknell Forest Council to develop on Blue Mountain golf course by submitting a Planning Proposal. This document outlines the reasons why BFC should build on the golf course in preference to other locations and a full copy is available on request.  For the avoidance of doubt their opening statement reads:

Their key objective is to rubbish all the other proposals being considered by BFC and put forward Blue Mountain as being the best location to build on. So I will focus on Mr Luff’s reasons for wishing to build on Blue Mountain and try to forget that when his family farmed the land they were highly respected members of the community.

1. The other 7 development locations are not so poor that they cannot be developed on as Boyer describe in their report and indeed there are other locations much more suitable than Blue Mountain which they have not bothered to mention.

2. It is not necessary to build a Football Stadium for Bracknell/ Wokingham FC in the middle of Binfield. The same stadium can be much better located at the Downshire sports complex where there is not only more space, better facilities and a location designed to take traffic peaks, but it is also in Bracknell bordering on Wokingham.

3. Until such time as much more housing has actually been built there is no need for another secondary school to go on the golf course. Both Easthampstead and Brackendale schools are only 50% subscribed and the brand new secondary school at Garth still has availability. Instead of destroying the green gap between Binfield and Bracknell why not make use of the many empty offices for additional educational facilities. There are many of them, they are eminently suitable for the purpose and much better located.

4. Building on the golf course is not so suitable for low income homes as the report describes. They are a long way from the town, with no public transport and no local facilities. No, what you really intend to do Mr Luff is build more executive homes and will find an excuse to change nearer the time.

5. Encouraging the Council to close Blue Mountain so that the membership will move to the loss making Downshire course is yet another cynical approach employed by Mr Luff and his cronies. No Mr Luff it does not work that way, why not explain to the Council that they would be lucky to attract 20% of the membership from one course to the other. Blue Mountain just happens to be extremely well managed and maintained by Crown Golf and members appreciate that.

6.  To describe the back garden of Newbold College as the open space necessary to protect the gap between Binfield and Bracknell shows a level of naivety and total disdain for the residents of both communities that on it’s own should preclude Luff Developments proposal from being considered by the Council.

For the historians, Mr Luff originally farmed the land before applying to develop a housing estate. This was granted conditional upon building the golf course, which the Council promised to protect and even took a 125 year lease to ensure that the gap between Binfield and Bracknell was protected. The housing estate at Temple Park was duly completed with no facilities whatsoever and now Mr Luff is back at the trough wanting to build on the golf course.