RESIDENTS and developers are being ask help choose areas for new housing developments in West Berkshire.

West Berkshire Council is launching a Call For Sites scheme, asking residents to put forward suggestions for sites where developments of between 10 and 500 homes could be built, as part of its Core Strategy to build 10,500 by 2026.

The council is meeting parishes and community planning groups in a series of roadshows to discuss the next steps and how they can get involved.

Planning leader Keith Chopping said: "The council is now asking for both local people and developers to come forward with any information on land that could be developed. By working together, we will be able to produce a robust and realistic plan for the future." The process will run over six weeks, starting on Monday.

It comes in the wake of the unsuccessful campaign against building 2,000 homes at Sandleford Park, an area of natural beauty well known as the setting of Watership Down, and the contrasting fortunes of the protests which stopped a minitown being built across green belt at Pincents Hill between Calcot and Tilehurst.

Cllr Chopping added: "If someone comes forward and wants to put a 100-unit development on an area of natural beauty, it wouldn't get very far. This is a way of gauging what people want and getting them involved in the decision-making process."

Visit www.westberks.gov.uk/saddpd and follow

the link to the 'Call For Sites' page.