Call for Kennet Meadows to be bought for community

The Kennet Valley Park development would have been built on a floodplain

A flood plain saved from development after plans to build 7,500 homes were dropped should be bought by the council for the community, campaigners say.

The threat of development had hung over Kennet Meadows, south west of Reading, since 2002, but the plans were abandoned earlier this month.

Prudential's property arm, Prupim, said the scheme was no longer economical.

A spokesman said any sale had to be in the interests of investments for individual pensions policy holders.

Campaigners against the development believed the site was an important haven for wildlife.

It is no longer economic to proceed with the planned development project Prupim spokesman

A consortium that consisted of Prupim and other landowners working on the scheme was dissolved after their decision earlier this month not to develop the land.

Their decision came nearly two years after original proposals for the homes were dropped from the government's South East plan - a 20-year vision for house-building and infrastructure.

Councillor John Ennis, who campaigned with residents to protect the site, is now calling for Reading Borough Council's chief executive to explore, along with West Berkshire Council, the possibility of buying the land from Prupim and their partners.

He wants the flood plain's ownership to be put it into a trust and managed as a "community and ecological asset".

'Limited economic value'

"Kennet Meadows is and will remain a flood plain, and I think and hope Prupim's decision means the people who own it know it's never going to be developed.

"So it has limited economic value, but it is greatly valued by local people."

A Prupim spokesman said: "It is no longer economic to proceed with the planned development project, so Prupim is looking at ways disposing of the land in which we have an interest.

"We are ultimately investing on behalf of individual pensions policy holders, and any decision we take must be in their interests.

"Prupim owns a small fraction of the developable area, and other landowners will have their own views."

A motion has been put forward by Mr Ennis to discuss the site at the next Reading Borough Council meeting on 30 March.