The Cookham Plan

Findings and Recommendations

Housing and Development Group

1. INTRODUCTION

This report was commissioned by the Cookham Parish Plan Steering Committee to support the development of a Parish Plan for Cookham. The report has been prepared by the Housing and Development Working Group and describes the research carried out by the group into planning, housing, development and other matters linked to the built environment.

The report covers a great deal of ground and examines each subject area in some detail. While much of this detail will, inevitably, be omitted from the overall village plan, we hope that villagers, councillors and others interested in housing and development matters in and around Cookham will find it an interesting and useful resource. 

Throughout the report we have endeavoured to identify significant issues within the housing and development fields, to explain the factors that determine or regulate these issues and to propose actions which should be undertaken over the 10 to 20 year period of the Cookham Plan in order to tackle the matters raised.

Many of the issues raised in our consultations with local people have their roots in legislation, government planning policy and the economics of the housing market. As such, their complete solution is far outside the scope of a Parish Plan but we have, wherever possible, endeavoured to suggest practical ways to mitigate their effects locally.

The Remit for this work was set by the Steering Committee and accepted by the

Working Group in September 2006. In summary, it required the group to

consider the following topics:

• Town Planning

• Infrastructure

• Mobile Telephones

• Flooding

• Building Quality

• Housing demand and affordability

• Housing provision for the elderly and disabled

• Siting of other Facilities

• Commercial Development

• Accessibility

The Remit is set out in full in Appendix 1.

The working group was made up of the following people:

• Martin Coker

• Roger Davies (group leader)

• Gavin Hall

• John Wilkinson

• Liz Winfield

Support was generously provided by many people, whether by responding to questionnaires, contributing ideas and issues at public meetings, responding to specific questions or by supporting the work in other ways. Particular thanks are due to Brian Martin of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for his work in supporting the group’s enquiries to the council and to Mike West for providing his superb photographs.