Plans to build up to 50 homes on a Woodley golf club are a “recipe for disaster,” residents have warned, as councillors are set to give their verdict.

Sonning Golf Club wants Wokingham Borough Council to give its plans the go-ahead at a planning committee meeting on Wednesday, August 10. But dozens of local residents – including former prime minister Theresa May – have written to the council to object.

They say the plans are dangerous, as access to the new 50-home cul-de-sac-would be through a narrow lane that has sections with no footpath.

Golf club users have complained that the plans would mean losing a valuable space for leisure, peace and quiet. And a local professor has warned that development could pose a risk to a rare species of bat.

Yet council officers are recommending that councillors approve the plans. They say developers would have to build safe pedestrian walkways, and that their ecology officer says that foraging bats won’t be negatively impacted.

They also point out that the plans include improvements to other areas of the golf club.

One resident, Charlotte Evans of Copse Mead, warned that the narrow road into the development – Duffield Road – already gets very busy.

She said: “Access and egress via Duffield Road is unsuitable and dangerous for proposed volume of houses. Duffield Road is a narrow road with no pavement, used by school children and commuters during busy periods.

“This is a recipe for disaster and, although I have no objection to the building of the 50 houses, an alternative access via a more suitable road must be found.”

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David Valentine from Arborfield worried about the loss of green leisure space. He said: “The course is a haven of tranquillity for the enjoyment of many and provides much needed green space in an area of high housing development.”

And professor Alastair Driver of Garde Road said development could harm birds of prey and bats.

He said bat surveys showing the presence of the "vary rare Barbastelle Bat" are of "outstanding significance."

Therea May, MP for Windsor and Maidenhead, also complained that the development would increase traffic and harm wildlife. She said it would “have a detrimental effect on the character of the area, particularly as the golf course has been designated as ‘countryside’.”

But council officers say the plans include adequate parking, that the council would demand upgraded pedestrian routes. Sonning Golf Club would also add an extended putting green as part of its upgrades.