On a bright, warm May Friday evening with the smell of BBQ in the air, I walked just after 7 pm to the Evendons school. Given the empty playground, I was wondering if I was the first to arrive until I made my way to the rear of the school to see a packed hall. The residents of the Evendons area had turned out in numbers to see if Berkeley would be sharing more details of their prospective development across our part of RG41.
The busy hall had a number of pop-up displays which showed the same information as the Berkeley website at blagrovemeadows.co.uk.
There were a couple of people from Berkeley answering questions, although at first, I wasn’t sure as they weren’t wearing name badges, lanyards or anything to identify themselves. I was surprised that depending on who you asked the answers on the details of the proposal were different. I’m still not sure if they plan to keep access for cars from Blagrove Lane to Evendons Lane or not as I had conflicting answers from the two Berkeley staff I asked.
Also at the event was Kasia Banas (kbanas@chelgate.com) who was responsible for the Berkeley survey. As we have pointed out before the survey is biased toward the development and many including me, refuse to complete it. They had a pile of paper copies at the event that could be submitted without answering the troublesome question one, and these were all quickly taken. If you email kbanas@chelgate.com she will send a copy by post with a prepaid envelope. I did ask that the survey be modified to be less biased, but the answer was no, as some people had already replied. The view from Berkeley was that if the development goes ahead then the responses would be used to inform the developer on what people wanted to see provided. That is a big IF.
My takeaway from this evening was that there wasn’t any new information from the developer. Their staff were uncomfortable being put on the spot and grilled by the residents and were underprepared. I would be surprised if any local residents were impressed or swayed and my view is that this was a “box-ticking” exercise by the developer.
Next Steps
Following the initial meeting of over 120 residents, a number of people indicated that they would like to help become committee members. I will contact everyone who put their name forward within the next week by email to let them know the date of the next meeting where we can formally reform the residents’ association.
Contact Email
if you would also like to attend the next meeting or have any information or questions for Evendons Area Residents Association (EARA) – please email info@evendons-area.org.uk
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