Key change required to Reading plans for Traveller sites

The Reading Local Plan defines where new homes can be built in policy documents adopted by Reading Borough Council.

It also contains a range of policies on land use and the impacts of development.

The council has engaged in a partial update of the Local Plan that was adopted in 2019 to amend a series of policies, which were submitted to the government’s planning inspectorate in May 2025.

Appointed inspector Joanna Gilbert has identified modifications needed to acknowledge provisions for Traveller sites, which Reading lacks, and to address water quality.

These modifications were discussed at council’s policy committee meeting on September 16.

Micky Leng, the lead councillor for planning, acknowledged the partial update process has been a long journey, with work starting on it in 2024.

Micky Leng (Labour, Whitley) deputy leader of Reading Borough Council and lead councillor for planning and assets. Credit: Reading Labour

Reforms to planning rules mean councils are no longer allowed to do partial updates of Local Plans, which must be prepared in full going forward.

Explaining the situation, cllr Leng (Labour, Whitley) said: “We are going to have a Local Plan, hopefully adopted by the council in January, then we will have 18 months to do our due diligence on Gypsy and Traveller [sites] and water quality.

“For the Gypsies and Traveller sites, we will need to stretch our due diligence on that, that’s going to be hard to try and find a site, but we’ll overcome that, like we overcome everything else.

“So we’re still going to have a Local Plan, we’re still going to provide good quality homes for people – 890 last year with a target of 825 – so, onward!”

Cllr Josh Williams (Green, Park) welcomed the opportunity to make changes to the Local Plan.

Councillor Josh Williams (Green, Park), has raised the issue of a lack of trees in Newtown, the area he lives in East Reading. (Image: Reading Green Party)

He said: “We are going to have to do a full update of the plan at some point, let’s say 2028, for example, that will be 10 years since the last one, and honestly I’m quite happy with that.

“We’ve been through so many things as a country and a town that plan is ready, I think, for a full update.”

While implying that the Local Plan is dated, cllr Williams also made a passing reference to Tony Page, who was the lead councillor for planning from 2008 to 2023, and retired following his mayoralty in April 2024.

To that, cllr Leng replied: “I think he did some excellent things for the town, including Green Park Station, which is in my ward and valued by many of its residents.”

On the government’s reforms to Local Plan procedures, he said: “Coming out of COVID, the need for homes calls for radical change, and they are trying to do radical change, and I think sometimes there will be bumps in the road.

“Yes, shifting sands of legislation is frustrating, but what we’ve got to do through that legislation is protect democracy, local government and get the homes and the environmental standards that we need, and a Gypsy and Traveller site.”

Councillors unanimously approved putting the main modifications of the Local Plan to a statutory consultation.