Final approval of plans for hundreds of flats on top of Broad Street Mall has been delayed as councillors were unhappy with the proposals for landscaping the rooftop car park.

Plans to build huge tower blocks on top of the town centre shopping mall have been agreed in principle already, but Reading Borough Council (RBC) officers have not signed off the plans due to no agreement yet being reached on how to enhance the look of the car park.

The proposal to build four residential blocks above and next to the mall containing 422 flats was approved by RBC's Planning Applications committee in March this year.

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But the committee decided to hold off final approval until they had seen fleshed-out designs for an extended car park, as there were concerns about the amount of greenery proposed.

The Planning Applications committee was due to make a decision on the latest designs for the car park last night (Wednesday, December 2) but chose to defer its decision to a future meeting in January or February.

Officers had been hoping for a decision to be made last night to speed up the process but councillors were not happy with the designs proposed.

Councillor Tony Page, lead member for Planning said: “This is still what I would regard as fairly minimalist and leaves the majority of the car park bare and exposed.”

Broad Street Mall owners Inception Reading SARL suggested they could cover more of the car park if they used cheaper wooden screening rather than more expensive greener materials, such as planting or trees.

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But Cllr Karen Rowland, lead member for Heritage, said: “We are missing a real opportunity here.

“A couple of weeks ago, we finalised our climate emergency strategy. Biodiversity and green, especially in the town centre, are so critical to us.

“I understand the idea of a wooden pergola hiding the car park but I look at this more as an opportunity to display green, to reduce heat loss, be a real energy saver and increase biodiversity.”

The car park is run by the council and Cllr Rowland suggested she would be happy giving up some car spaces if this meant more planting is added, but Cllr Page responded: “Can I propose we defer this to another meeting before Cllr Rowland rushes away and gives away loads of my parking spaces.”

The Broad Street Mall owners agreed to hold discussions with the council to come to an agreement over the planting options in the coming months, with the hope of reaching an agreement by the current deadline of February 11.