PLANS to build flats on the former Battle Hospital site have been approved, even though the design has been branded “quite dull”.

Stonegate Homes has been granted planning permission to construct a six-storey building on Oxford Road that contains two ground-floor retail units and 26 flats.

There will be one, two, and three bedroom flats inside the new building. Eight of them will be affordable.

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According to the plans, balconies and private terraces will be provided and there will be four “living green walls” on the ground floor and solar panels on the roof.

The plans were approved by Reading Borough Council’s Planning Applications Committee on January 13.

Cllr Karen Rowland (Labour) said the development will provide much-needed affordable housing in Reading but criticised the design.

“I find the design of the building to be quite dull,” she said.

“But you’re not going to say it’s so poorly designed that it should be turned down, because it does have many, many benefits.”

Cllr Emmett McKenna (Labour) said: “It’s a regeneration of what is effectively an empty space and will provide affordable housing and retail space.

“This has considerable benefits.”