Overview
![]() ![]() Berkshire County Council Minutes:
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Many Wokingham folk have a distant memory of a motorway junction just north of the town. It was very convenient for them, but it disappeared mysteriously in the mid-1970’s. This was the mythical 'Ashridge Interchange', just south of Junction 10 at the A321 Twyford Road, just a mile or so from Broad Street (shown above). Why did it disappear? Why is it never mentioned as a solution to our traffic problems? We need to understand the background when the A329(M) was being planned in the late 1960's, in two phases:
It is understandable why there was such opposition to an interchange fairly close to the town centre. Wokingham Town had grown extremely rapidly during the 1960's, and the proposed link road was completely out of proportion to its surroundings. A dual carriageway aiming straight at the heart of the old market town would have completely ruined the area. Perhaps it was felt that by closing off this junction, the town would be spared much more building. This was not to be.
We now face another Planning round, and two "by-passes" are being suggested for north and south-east Wokingham. They are not by-passes; they are simply distributor roads to serve possible new housing developments - 2,000 houses each.
Its exit will be on the Reading Road immediately south of the M4 bridge, and this will become a major bottleneck.
Whether or not Arborfield Garrison is included in official plans, if it is closed or scaled-down, the Ministry of Defence will apply for housing development, and will win on appeal, because it includes a large brown-field site along with its many sports fields. The sports fields may be safe, but the built-up areas aren't.
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