Keep Emmer Green (KEG) is a campaign group formed by local residents from Emmer Green, Caversham, Caversham Park Village and villages in South Oxfordshire bordering the northern boundaries of Reading Borough.

We believe that any significant residential development on green space in Emmer Green and the surrounding areas of South Oxfordshire will be unsustainable and want to stop development of our local green spaces at the expense of everybody who already lives, works and goes to school here.

What has happened so far

A planning application was submitted in August 2020 by developer Fairfax (Reading) Limited and Reading Golf Club Limited for a development of 260 properties on Reading Golf Course in Emmer Green.

Over 2000 objections to the planning application were submitted to Reading Borough Council (RBC) by concerned residents. This is the greatest number of objections RBC have ever received for a single planning application. Local residents are clearly very concerned.

The planning application was withdrawn by Fairfax/Reading Golf Club in December 2020 shortly before the application was to be put before the Council Planning Committee.

A new planning application for 257 houses on the Reading Golf Course in Emmer Green has now been submitted (February 2021) so we are continuing our crowdfunding to raise funds to help with our costs to oppose this unwanted development.

Many local residents have been donating their time and services to KEG for free including giving advice on planning, ecology, drainage and traffic as well as printing and delivering leaflets on behalf of KEG.

What we are doing now

A number of people asked if they could make a donation and support KEG financially and thanks to their help, we raised just over £1000 in March 2019 which helped to cover some of our costs at that time.

As we enter into the next phase of our campaign, we are hoping to raise a further £5000 to help with our ongoing expenses such as our website, publicity, printing etc. to keep the community informed but also to help towards the initial cost of professional advisors.

The consultation period for commenting on the new planning application closed on 18th March 2021. After evaluating responses the council planning committee will sit to consider the planning application which we expect will happen in June 2021. When they do, we hope they will vote to refuse the application.

If they do, our expectation is that the applicant will appeal against the refusal to grant planning permission and at that point we may need to raise our target significantly as we seek further professional and indeed legal advice.

Please help

Please give whatever you can afford, however small, it all helps!

To find out more about Keep Emmer Green and our campaign to stop the development on Reading Golf Course, please visit our website: www.keepemmergreen.com

In the unlikely event we have a small surplus of funds at the end of the campaign we will donate it to a local charity.

Thank you