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

  • West Glebe - application 21/00688/HOUSE Erection of a separate 4 bedroom dwelling in the domestic cartilage of West Glebe. PC voted no objections at the meeting held 5th May 2021. The application has since been withdrawn.
  • Hope Cottage, - application 21/00564/HOUSE Replacement of sleepers, post and rail fence, repositioning of gate and new screening. WBC granted this application
  • Northwood - application 21/00038/HOUSE Proposed single storey rear extensions. PC responded with No Objections. WBC granted this application

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.