Just received notification from Wokingham Borough Council of the date for the Public Enquiry concerning the erection of the Communications Mast associated with the Sibly Hall development. The opening public meeting is scheduled for 10am on 6th March 2012 at the Wokingham Borough Council offices in Wokingham.
You can also download a copy of it from here.
Beasley's Place 
At the risk of annoying you – what do you expect UOR to do? They don't want Sibly – it's a 1950s cold war relic and the area is one of domestic housing.
UOR like all universities is a business with money as its core interest.
I'm not in favour of any one thing or another but isn't this an obvious one – build houses?
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You make a good point in that the building is old and understandably is now excess to UOR's requirements.
However, and perhaps naively, I always thought that places like UOR had the excellence of learning & education as their core interest.
Yes of course you need money to deliver that, but when 'Money' takes precedence over 'Education' as the 'core' factor; have we not moved too far from what a University should be about?
Yes we do need more houses, but perhaps we need more affordable houses than say, the 4/5 Bedroom Executive Houses that the development plans discuss.
However, what ever the types of houses that are built (and I suspect they will get built despite any further local objections), it surely should be taken into consideration the massive impact the development will have on the existing local community in general.
I don't think anyone really objects to houses being built on any existing developed land, i.e. the block itself and its car parks. It's the amount of houses and the loss of the open green space that is the biggest concern.
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Universities have not had education as their main driver for years and they are primarily operated on a profit and loss basis like any other large commercial organisation.
In the case of UOR which is asset rich but financially poor; selling off land for the erection of as many houses as possible is their golden chalice. I have experience of this in that I live in an area surrounded by land that used to belong to UOR but has now been sold to developers.
WBC likewise is a money grabber and I regret that this will ultimately lead to the houses you understandably resist.
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Well said.
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It is naive to think that the delivery of higher education can be achieved without funding. The University has clearly no further use for the Sibly site beyond this year. It is a charity, and charities are expected to make effective and efficient use of their assets. What, seriously, do you expect them to do? Give it away? They would be in breach of their obligations and would no doubt be heavily criticized by their regulator. Any funds realized from the sale of Sibly will be ploughed back into the core business, higher education.
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I think the educational charity status is a tad overused.
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Beasley – don't forget, your council hates you (residents in general, not you personally)- and its looking to make money however it can; i.e. their new mini waste sack scam.
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