Wokingham planners shortlisted as team of the year

Wokingham Borough Council’s drive for high-quality development, backed by the right infrastructure, has been recognised in the Royal Town Planning institute’s (RTPI) Planning Excellence Awards.

The borough council has been shortlisted in the Local Authority Planning Team of the Year category for the way it is delivering major growth in the borough in a controlled, collaborative way through the four Strategic Development Locations (SDLs)*.

The RTPI’s criteria for the award include the use of imaginative approaches to achieve high quality planning, customer satisfaction and ability of planners to manage multi-disciplinary projects.

The borough council sets out how it has moved to working in partnership with landowners, developers and community representatives to plan development properly. Among the benefits of this new approach, are:

Greatly increased financial contributions from developers for infrastructure – averaging £28,000 per home compared to £8,000 in the past, and totalling around £350million across the four SDLs
Increased public engagement, with community forums set up in each of the SDLs and major consultations to set the route of the Arborfield Relief Road and North Wokingham Distributor Road
Better quality planning applications produced by closer collaboration with partners
More funding from central Government and other bodies – about £20million in grants and loans to support the developments to date

The winners in the Planning Excellence awards will be announced on Monday June 23.