Public consultation being held over planning application for Hare Hatch garden centre

A public consultation is taking place over a planning application to carry out refurbishment works at a garden centre in Hare Hatch.

Ladds Garden Village was recently obtained by garden centre operators and owners the Granary Group Ltd.

According to a covering letter, the company aims to update centres through providing ‘better looking and safer buildings’ and enhanced facilities.

The company intends to ‘streamline the operation’ at the centre in Bath Road and focus ‘on the gardening experience’.

Work is proposed to be carried out in three phases with the first phase focusing on urgent repairs and enhancements to the main centre building, extending the enclosed sales area at the back and improving and making outside public areas safer.

The second phase includes re-organising the floor space at the site to establish a ‘more coherent single garden centre unit’, while phase three would see the area to the rear of the centre cleared.

The application has received a series of objections, citing issues such as concerns over the effect on greenbelt land, the landscape being ‘spoiled’ and the proposed garden centre being too close to other similar centres.

One objection said: “I object completely to another garden centre to be built as two established garden centres are within 12 miles, one with a farm shop, so what is this going to offer that the others don’t?”

However, another individual commented in support of the application for phase one, stating the proposals go ‘some way’ to clearing the ‘debris and demolishing some of the untidy sheds’.

The public consultation ends on Thursday, January 14.

View the application at: https://planning.wokingham.gov.uk/FastWebPL/detail.asp?AltRef=203085&ApplicationNumber=&AddressPrefix=&Postcode=RG10+9SB&KeywordSearch=&Submit=Search