After months of campaigning, local Conservatives together with fellow campaigners and residents, were united in celebration this week following West Berkshire Council’s recent decision not to include Pincents Hill or Whitehart Meadows as strategic sites for development in the Local Development Framework (LDF).

This decision comes despite ongoing pressure from Central Government to build more than 10,000 homes in West Berkshire by 2026.

Alok Sharma, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West, who has been campaigning over the past year with local residents and local campaign groups such as the Save Calcot Action Group to stop inappropriate and over-development in the constituency, said:

"I am absolutely delighted that the recommendation at West Berkshire Council is not to include Pincents Hill and Whitehart Meadows as strategic sites in the LDF.

This news will come as a wonderful early Christmas present for all local residents, Conservative councillors, and the Save Calcot Action Group who have campaigned so hard over the past year to stop development at these sites.

The stance of local councillor Joe Mooney, and others on West Berkshire Council, in ensuring that inclusion of sites such as Pincents Hill in the LDF needed to be fully consulted upon has been comprehensively vindicated.

Conservative West Berkshire Council are to be congratulated on their common sense approach to the LDF. I hope we will now see Blue Living's planning application for Pincents Hill rejected when it comes to planning committee early next year as well as success for the Save Calcot Action Group's village green application for the Pincents Hill site."

Photo: Alok Sharma at Pincents Hill with Save Calcot Action Group members Kylie Toms, Barry Ferguson, Joan Lawrie and Julia Gentle.