Published: Thursday, 25th June, 2009 9:00am

Back to the drawing board for BMX track

by Adam Hewitt

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THE new BMX track for Lower Earley was dealt a huge blow last night.

Earley Town Council wants to build it in the Paddick Drive playing field, but Wokingham Borough Council"s planning committee decided that it was too big and should be redesigned if it is to have a chance of getting approval.

The track has been contentious since the town council first picked the location more than a year ago, with neighbours forming residents" associations to fight the plans. They wrote nearly 150 letters of objection to borough council planners ahead of last night"s meeting.

Deputy Lib Dem leader Stephen Conway suggested the vote be deferred so that Earley Town Council could work on parking and highways issue surrounding the track, and reconsider its size.

He said: 'It needs a fresh look. Is this scale really what they are looking for?'

Three of the five councillors allowed to vote backed his proposal, including planning chairman Steve Chapman and Tory Lee Gordon-Walker, so the track will come back to a future planning meeting.

Tory councillors John Kersley, who spoke in favour of the track, and Norman Gould opposed the proposal, while Lib Dem Cllr Jenny Lissaman and Tory councillor Tim Holton could not vote because they are also town councillors and so could be biased.

The protesters say the track, at 4,000 sq meters, makes it effectively a regional rather than a local facility, meaning it will attract far more people than the road network and its planned four parking spaces could cope with.

Philip Pyle spoke for the campaigners, criticising the town council"s 'utter contempt' for residents, the 'biased' consultation used to justify the track, and urged councillors to reject it on noise, safety and anti-social behaviour grounds.

Speaking as the applicant, Earley Town Council leader, Tory Cllr Chris Edmunds, said there was a real need for youth facilities in Earley and that feedback had proved this over many years.

He said: 'Having considered all the options we think this size and scale to be the most suitable for this site - 80% of the open space will stay as it is.'

Tory Cllr Matt Deegan, seen by some as the brains behind the scheme, also spoke in favour of the track in his capacity as ward member. He said the consultation survey sent to his whole ward of Hawkedon showed a majority in favour of the track and that he had to consider all of Earley, not just the people living closest to the site.

Neither are on the planning committee, and so have no vote on the track.

But Cllr Gordon-Walker, who did have a vote, said it was like a town which needed more shops being forced to have a giant new supermarket, adding: 'This is a good development in principle, but it"s just too big.'

Several protesters left the meeting declaring themselves happy with the result, even though they would have preferred an outright rejection.

Mr Pyle said: 'A smaller track would be ideal, we could live with that - we want to work constructively with the council, if they would sit down with us properly.'

Another leading anti-track campaigner, Adam Davidson, said: 'It"s much too big, that"s one of our main concerns, so I"m glad they"re going to go back and look at its size and the parking issues.'

Cllr Edmunds said: 'We"ve put a lot of work into this project. We"re quite happy to look at the design again, but some of the issues that were raised were already dealt with. The size of the track, for example, is only two bikes wide - it would be impossible to hold major events on it, since it would have to be wide enough for eight bikes, it"s deliberately designed as it is. I don"t understand this label "regional track".'