Fury has erupted in a UK town over plans to build on land that inspired a beloved children’s book. West Berkshire Council’s planning committee has been asked to approve a sprawling development at Sandleford Park West, just outside Newbury. The land was made famous in Richard Adams’ 1972 novel, Watership Down, which follows a group of rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren by developers and look for somewhere new to call home.
The project to build 360 homes, led by Donnington New Homes, has more than 100 objections with concerns from locals. It comes after a planning inspectorate gave the green light last year for 1,000 new houses to be developed by Bloor Homes around the same area of Sandleford.
Plans to build on Sandleford Park have been in the works for more than a decade. In 2011, Watership Down’s author Richard Adams criticised proposals to build houses in the area. The author, who died in 2016, said at the time: “It is my firm belief that to build on the quiet meadows of Sandleford would be an ugly invasion, a nasty wound to one of the loveliest retreats in all Berkshire and Hampshire.
“I understand that houses need to be built, and that people need homes to live in. But any dispassionate examination of the situation leads to the emphatic conclusion that this land should not be built on.
“If Sandleford goes for development, it will be the thin end of the wedge. Once an area of countryside has been broken into for development, the process continues until the whole area has been ruined. I might be dead, but how will you feel about that?”
Locals have been long against the idea, with the SayNoToSandleford group being set up in 2012 to oppose the development.
The group said: “Sandleford is best known for housing the warren in the opening chapters of Watership Down, which is destroyed by developers. We are fighting to stop fiction from turning into fact.
“We call on West Berkshire Council to develop smaller more sustainable mixed-use brownfield sites and sustainable housing in the surrounding villages.
“Sandleford is a historic site that contains a number of ancient woodlands and is adjacent to a number of sites of Special Scientific Interest. Part of it was parkland for the Grade II listed Sandleford Priory some 300 years ago and it borders the site of the First Battle of Newbury in 1643.”
However, a council report on the project said: “This outline planning application, as amended, is acceptable and satisfactory and should be granted outline planning permission subject to conditions and the prior satisfactory completion of a Section 106 Legal Agreement.”
