Neighbors Criticize Plans for 2,500-Home New Development Near Princess of Wales’s Residence

Kate Middleton will be devastated by plans to bulldoze the countryside near her family home, her old neighbours believe. 

West Berkshire Council has intentions to construct 2,500 residences on an expansive stretch of lush green fields situated between Upper Bucklebury and Thatcham. This location is just a short distance from the residence where the Princess of Wales spent her childhood and adjacent to the North Wessex Downs, which is recognized as an area of exceptional natural beauty (AONB).

Projected to be completed by the year 2041, the council’s ambitious plan could see the picturesque land frequented by Princess Catherine during her youth transformed into a construction zone for a period of 15 years.

Residents living in close proximity to the designated area have strongly criticized the proposals of Housing Minister Angela Rayner to establish 1.5 million homes nationwide. They have alleged that these initiatives reflect a form of resentment towards the countryside due to Rayner’s upbringing on a housing estate in the north.

Locals who adore Kate Middleton said she would probably not speak out publicly but rather agree in private with locals infuriated by the plan – which they said would make the Berkshire countryside end up looking ‘like China’.

Hash Shingadia, 64, used to serve Haribo and Doritos to the Princess of Wales and her sister Pippa at his Spar and Post Office in Upper Bucklebury, Berkshire, when they were teenagers.

During the early days of Kate’s blossoming romance with William, the future King would even pop into the shop for ice cream and Hash and his wife Chandrika were later invited to the couple’s wedding in 2011.

Speaking to MailOnline, Hash said Kate would be extremely upset and would be thinking, ‘Oh my God, what’s happening?’

Hash said: ‘Long term, it’s going to happen but it’s sad to lose our identity. It’s a village and then in a few years it will be part of Thatcham.

‘I was in Bedford a short while ago and up there it’s just houses upon houses upon houses. At one time it was fields and now it’s houses left, right and centre. 

‘It’s going to put a lot of pressure on the surrounding area. 

‘People want to retain the country feel in Bucklebury. It’s a lovely village. All of Midgham, Woolhampton, all along there, you look at the views down there and it’s lovely.

‘And then all of a sudden all the houses with all their problems. More cars, more pollution.’

Although surrounding parish councils fought hard to get the number of homes reduced to 1,500, when Labour came into government, its Planning Inspectorate demanded the number return to 2,500.

Across the country, Labour is demanding councils bulldoze the countryside for a building spree lasting more than a decade to fix what it calls a housing crisis.

Yet critics have suggested the rate of housebuilding will still not increase as there is little benefit for developers to risk driving down the price of homes by building faster.

Last week, Housing Minister and Deputy PM Rayner, who grew up on a housing estate in Stockport, admitted her aim of 1.5 million homes would only be a ‘dent’ in the number of houses she hopes to build.

Mother-of-two jewellery designer Rosie Parks, 36, lives beside the proposed site.

She said: ‘There are so many houses going all over the south of England. It’s quite scary.

‘I hope it’s not our fence line. I would notice that road getting really busy and then doctors and local schools being hard to get into.

‘I don’t feel like it’s something I can stop. I feel powerless.

‘The sewage system is not nearly set up for a portion of those houses and I don’t know how they would manage that.

‘When it comes to farmers’ land, it’s a shame. I don’t know what the answer is to housing but no one wants it on their doorstep do they?’ 

Her neighbour Jon Lee, 72, told MailOnline: ‘It’s going to be ten years of putting up with the dust and the dirt.

‘You’ve got Angela Rayner telling everyone she comes from the back streets of an estate in the North.

‘Well okay, fine, but it doesn’t mean you’ve got to take out your anger on everyone else around the country.

‘You know, there are some nice places in this country. Do you want to build them all? 

‘It’s a beautiful view and all of that’s going to be gone. I don’t know if she really understands what she’s doing.’ 

He added: ‘[Kate Middleton] is not allowed to say [her view], is she? They’re well-liked around here. But they’re not allowed to give a public statement to say, ”We are dead against this.”

‘They’ve lived around here a long time. I doubt very much if they wouldn’t see it as the majority of people see it who are close to where it’s going to be.

‘I would have thought privately they would probably say, ”If we have got to have something, fine, but to put up a huge new estate on the side of a hill…?” 

However, Jon is adamant he’s not a NIMBY. 

He said: ‘A certain amount of development seems okay. We are a growing country.

‘But it’s got to be done in a much more considered way. The planning system we have is not fit for purpose. 

‘There’s all sorts of deals being done by landowners, by private people, and it’s pretty obvious that some of the decisions aren’t made for the good of the nation.

‘There’s a lot of people who think there’s some very funny dealings going on. 

‘We’re on the very edge of where the houses will be. 

‘They’re pumping [sewage] into the rivers already. If you’re going to put another town in place the size of Hungerford, 2,500 houses, where’s the sewage going to be put?

‘They [will] have to pay out for a new [system]. It can be done, of course it can.

‘It’s our money, that’s what bugs us. We’re paying for all this ineptitude. It’s total incompetence on behalf of the people making these decisions.

‘And then you’ve got a government that comes in and says, ”No, we’re not going to do 1,500, we want 2,500.”

‘I can see why people lose all faith in governments because you wouldn’t run a business like this, let alone a country for God’s sake.

‘I wouldn’t mind it if it came from people who knew what they were talking about.

‘But a lot of these people don’t seem to really understand. Common sense seems to have gone out the window.’

Bucklebury Parish Councillor Peter Spours, 73, told MailOnline: ‘It’s an area of prime farming land and it’s basically in the wrong place. There’s plenty of brownfield sites in the area.

‘The housing projections were done on extremely old data, way before Covid. There’s no infrastructure around it to build a cohesive community.

‘You’re just going to end up with a huge housing estate. Thatcham has lots of those already. What it lacks is a town centre.

‘Bucklebury is a village. Thatcham is a small town. They’re separated by a large chunk of greenery at the moment and that will be squeezed down to nearly nothing.

‘Nobody knows whether if you develop this you’ll even be able to sell houses.

‘Traffic is a big problem and it’s not been thought through. Kids have to walk along those roads to get to the school buses. Accidents are almost a certainty.

‘With a site like this, you’ve got to get in the car to go anywhere so the traffic is just going to come up through the village.

‘Bucklebury doesn’t want to become a suburb of Thatcham. It’s an individual village and we want to keep it that way. There’s no need for this development.’

West Berkshire Council’s Executive Member for Housing and Planning, Cllr Denise Gaines, saidL: ‘We are extremely incensed and frustrated that as an administration, we are being forced to progress this plan which fails to meet the needs of our residents.

‘However, the risks of not following the inspector’s instructions are highly likely to result in intervention from Ministry for Housing, who would take over the process.

‘The alternative would be that the plan would be found unsound resulting in the need for the plan-making process to start again under the new government housing allocation calculations. 

‘Under this new allocation we have been allocated an unrealistic housing figure which significantly increases the district’s housing numbers from 495 to 1070 dwellings per annum.’

Retired electrician John Simpson, 88, has lived in the area since he was born in 1936 in the house next door, where his daughter now lives.

He lives in the last house on a long countryside track that juts into the fields earmarked for development.

He told MailOnline: ‘It’s such a shame because there are nice old fields and bricks and mortar will ruin the view.

‘I was born next door and I built this place. At night time all you hear is owls and a few deer.’

He said the development would clog up the road that was already under strain from ‘horrendous’ traffic, while the main developer from Wasing Estate wouldn’t be affected at all.

‘It’s just a bloody mess,’ he added. ‘I like to see the old fields and the countryside. It’s just going. In 50 years it will be one mass of houses. It’ll be like China.’

Meanwhile, one of his neighbours said her dream home was threatened by the plans.

She said: ‘I feel like we’ve been cheated. I know things change but when I looked at the Council’s Strategic Plan there were lots of locations I chose not to move because of what was said about developments.

‘Here, they said Thatcham was overdeveloped and then wallop, a few years later they say [they’re] going to take green land and come right up the hill to Upper Bucklebury, which is no longer going to exist as a separate identity.

‘I chose this village because of its looks and the green around it.

‘Upper Bucklebury is a village in its own right. When you look at [other nearby villages of] Donnington and Shaw, they’ve all been swamped by Newbury. There’s nothing left of them.

‘People live out this way as opposed to in the city because you want to live in a village environment. 

‘The council might say you can’t build a shed in your front garden because you’re on AONB and then it plans to build 2,500 houses two yards away.

‘That’s the inconsistency of how planning is done in this country and that’s what really upsets a lot of people. You have no control. 

‘This is the AONB. How can they say they’re not going to destroy it by building down the road?

‘I don’t know how building loads of houses creates a better market town. 

‘I don’t know where the jobs are. Where are all these people going to work? There are school issues. In Newbury, shops closing all the time.

‘I come from the Swindon area and I can tell you it didn’t work over there since the 1950s after the war.’

The Princess of Wales declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.

Angela Rayner and the Housing Ministry refused to comment on suggestions their plan will not increase the rate of housebuilding since developers have no incentive to decrease house prices.

A Housing Ministry spokesman said: ‘We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory, which is why all areas must play their part to deliver 1.5 million homes as part of our Plan for Change.

‘Our major planning overhaul will help us deliver this and unblock barriers to build new homes where they are most needed, but not at the expense of the environment.’

Andrew Perkins, the chief executive of Wasing Estate, said: ‘The site is under multiple landownerships, of which Wasing Estate is the smallest land parcel. 

‘These proposals will deliver substantial benefits for the local community, including the provision of affordable housing, a new school, employment, open space and sustainable drainage provision. 

‘Its design will be sustainably-led, whilst also ensuring that the necessary infrastructure will be provided alongside the provision of much needed new housing.’