A campaigner against a 2,000 homes project near Bracknell has slammed the council over IT issues on its planning website.

The campaigner says the issues mean that him and his colleagues are unable to comment on Bracknell Forest Council’s Emerging Local Plan.

So far, he says he has been faced with being unable to fill out elements of the comment form and problems uploading an e-signature.

The complaints to the council have been made by Richard Stok, the Secretary of the Save Jealott's Hill campaign.

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Mr Stok said: “The issue that we have come across is significant errors to the method of submitting comments on the council website.

“I’ve had fellow campaigners being presented with messages saying it’s not a secure site, people can’t find the form in which to submit their messages and are hitting broken links, and others have been unable to fill out the Microsoft Word form… It’s a mess, it really is.

“I’ve written to the council’s solicitor, who tried to palm us off, and said someone would look into the broken links. But it’s been a travesty, people can’t submit their responses. It’s a suppression of their democratic rights!”

He also said that campaigners were struggling to add their signatures to the online forms and called on the council to let people submit their comments by post.

Mr Stok is among campaigners objecting to an element of the emerging Local Plan which earmarks the Sygenta Site in Jealott's Hill for 2000 new homes.

Bracknell News:

No plan for the site has been drawn up yet, and the campaigners are hoping to stall any development of the site by urging the council to retain the land as a green belt.

The site falls within the London Metropolitan Green Belt, and can only be built on in exceptional circumstances.

The Bracknell Local Plan consultation, officially called the Pre-Submission Bracknell Forest Local Plan, involves allowing 200 hectares of that green belt at Jealott's Hill to be built on. Campaigners argue that the council has not  justified why the land should be built on.

Mr Stok said: “I’ve asked Bracknell Forest Council to delay the deadline so people can send their responses by post.

“They really have been unprofessional. One would get the sense that they’re trying to minimise the responses. It took me 40 minutes to find where to comment. It’s crazy.”

The deadline for responses was originally 5pm on Tuesday, May 11. However, the council has now extended the deadline and made changes to the process in order to alleviate the problems raised by Mr Stok and others.

READ MORE: Local plan moves forward despite rebellion from Tory group over Jealott's Hill plan

Andrew Hunter, executive director for Place, Planning and Regeneration, said: “We apologise for any difficulties that residents have encountered when trying to complete the submission form for the Bracknell Forest Local Plan.

“We value this helpful feedback which has enabled us to respond quickly to correct a couple of small issues to make responding more simple. The consultation portal can be accessed via the consultations tab from the council’s home page; via the planning policy pages; or by searching within the site or via a google search. The response form is available in Word and PDF formats.

“We have amended the Word version of the form to make it more widely usable on a variety of electronic devices. To give residents more time to respond, we have extended the consultation period until 10am on Monday, May 17 and the website has been updated accordingly. Paper copies of the response form are available in local libraries, or by emailing: development.plan@bracknell-forest.gov.uk.”

In response to the changes, Mr Stok said he was “pleased” that the changes had been made and the deadline had been extended, but stressed that neighbours should be able to submit their comments in a ‘plain text email’ as well.

You can comment on the  Pre-Submission Bracknell Forest Local Plan by commenting in the ways described above, or by visiting the consultation portal: https://consult.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/kse/event/36138 and downloading the response forms in either PDF or Word format (supporting files 10 and 11 respectively).