Maidenhead & Windsor

The Maidenhead Royal Borough is not only fiercely protective of its Green Belt but has also met government targets on house building ahead of time.

That's the message spelled out by Maidenhead Cllr Vicky Howes, lead member for planning, this week as the Maidenhead council put the record straight on "wildly inaccurate" figures on housing density which, according to the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), show the borough to be amongst the lowest for making use of available housing land.

The CPRE alleged that the Maidenhead borough was one of the worst in the country for not allowing developers to build to the government target of 30-50 dwellings per hectare, claiming that the borough's average of permitted homes was less than 20 per hectare.

However, Cllr Howes said the CPRE figures were based on wildly inaccurate and out-of-date government information, some of which went back as far as the 1990s!

She said: "The facts are that in 2004/05 – the most recent monitoring figures we have available – the council allowed 67 dwellings per hectare on medium-sized sites and 19 on small sites. This is an average of 30 dwelling per hectare and fully meets the government planning guidance.

"At the same time we are fiercely protective of the Green Belt, which makes up 83% of our borough and restricts the amount of land available – and we are one of the top performing authorities for ensuring that new development takes place on previously-used land. More than 90% of permitted development is on brownfield sites and this figure has been maintained for several years."

Cllr Howes pointed out the Maidenhead Royal Borough had already met its government-set house-building target of 281 homes per year up to 2013 so the council was now having to restrict house-building to avoid over-development and putting too much pressure on the existing infrastructure

Cllr Howes added: "There is limited availability of land in the Royal Borough, not only because so much of it is in the Green Belt but also because 24% lies in the flood plain. As councillors representing local communities we have to strike a sensitive balance between the need for new homes and the necessity to protect the environment and quality of life enjoyed by our residents.

"I am delighted to say that, as our most recent figures show, we are achieving government targets and making the most effective use of brownfield sites."

The CPRE figures were taken from Land Use Change Statistics (LUCS) published by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Information is obtained from Ordnance Survey mapping but areas like the Royal Borough are not surveyed regularly so the data used is out of date and based on old planning permissions, some going as far back as the 1990s. Also LUCS does not take account of changes of use and conversions, which tend to have higher densities of dwellings.

The borough's figures are taken from the Maidenhead council's own annual monitoring report for sites completed in 2004/05, which show an average density of 30 dwellings per hectare. These figures are sent to the Government Office for the South East on an annual basis.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead