Current and historic planning applications can be found on the West Berkshire Council website.  The Parish Council is provided with a copy of all planning applications within the Parish and is given 3 weeks to respond with their observations. 

Following budget cuts, residents will no longer be individually written to by the District Council informing them of neighbouring property planning applications. It will be up to those affected to observe the orange planning notice / posts below, and review the plans on the West Berkshire Council website. The Parish Councils requests that anyone with concerns on an application promptly contacts the Parish Council via the Clerk or a Councillor to enable their concerns to be heard, and where appropriate taken in to account on the Parish Council consultation response. 

Recent village planning applications under consideration

  • Planning Appeal - The Parish Council has been notified by WBC that the applicant for Isbury, Brightwalton - application number 18/02338/OUTD has made an appeal to the Secretary of State against the decision of West Berkshire District Council to refuse to grant planning application to demolish the existing house and erect three new dwellings on the site. All previously made representations will be forwarded on to the Planning Inspectorate and will be considered by the inspector when determining the appeal. Anyone wishing to make comments, or modify/withdraw previous representations can do so online at www.gov.uk/appeal-planning-inspectorate or by emailing nsi.planning@pins.gsi.gov.uk. All representations must be received no later that 5 weeks from the 13th February. 
  • Isbury, Brightwalton - application number 18/02338/OUTD for Outline permission to demolish existing house and erect three dwellings via existing access along with associated infrastructure. The Parish Council strongly opposes this application and following the public meeting held on the 10th October submitted a lengthy response detailing why it believes the application should be rejected. West Berkshire Council Refused this application. 
  • 3 Saxons Acre, Brightwalton - application number 18/02313/HOUSE. Proposed single storey rear extension. The Parish Council have until the 28th September to respond on the application. The Parish Council submitted a response of No Objections to this application. West Berkshire Council have Granted Permission.
  • Laguna House, Brightwalton Holt - application number 18/01414/HOUSE. Proposed extension and alteration works including new detached garage and car port. The Parish Council agreed a response of No Objections at the meeting held 16th July. West Berkshire Council have Granted Permission.​

Early discussion of development plans is advisable

Brightwalton Parish Council is always pleased to have the plans presented by the owner or architect to them early within the planning stage. If you have plans that you wish to discuss please contact the Parish Council Clerk.  Both the Parish Council and West Berkshire Council strongly advices applicants to discuss their plans with their neighbours prior to submitting the plans, this is an easy way to avoid hostility at a
later stage.

Parish Council's role in the process

The role of the Brightwalton Parish Council in the Planning Process Planning is such an emotive subject that we wanted to articulate the role of the Brightwalton Parish Council in this process and the way in which we look at any planning application. 

First Principals
  1. In any planning application the West Berkshire Planning Team first consult the Global Policy documents and the Local Policy to see if there is any legislation that would be impacted by the application.
  2. There are then 12 democratically elected members (of which we are but one) that have a vote on any given Planning Application.
  3. A planning decision is never "black or white". There is always an element of subjectivity. For example a lot of the planning guidelines talk about "amenity value" which is impossible to define. What one individual views as being "a positive amenity value" is maybe a "negative impact on amenity value" for someone else.

Our role
  1. Outline the Pros and Cons of an application and its impact on the wider Brightwalton Village as opposed to just the impact on the immediate neighbours. For example: Someone asking to build a garage might have a negative impact on the amenity value for the next door neighbour, that would need to be weighted up against a reduction in street parking near a busy junction.
  2. Call out whether the application in some ways helps/encourages particular communities in the village. For example:
    1. ​If the application is to create a home office, could support a village desire to see more people employed from home.
    2. Smaller first time homes would support a communities desire to encourage more first time home ownership.

Our Approach
The way we go about this is to be:
  1. Objective not subjective
  2. Weigh up the Pros and Cons of any application and come to a balanced conclusion.
  3. Make recommendations that might help a decision making panel that are not familiar with​ Brightwalton and the immediate area.