Drive-through café and play area – planning roundup

Tonnes of planning decisions have been made by Reading Borough Council (RBC) this week, so here we are focusing on some that have gone more under-the-radar.

For the major decisions made this week at the council’s Planning Applications committee on Wednesday, July 21, click on the following five links to read more about them:

1. Hugely unpopular Reading Golf Club planning application refused
2. Hotel and pub plan at Bristol & West Arcade approved
3. Overhaul approved for tower blocks plagued by ‘rats the size of cats’
4. Prospect Park playground move to safer location approved
5. Care home expansion approved despite traffic safety concerns

Onto to the planning roundup, where there are plenty more interesting decisions to run through.

Drive-through café plans approved

A shopping park in south Reading is set to get a new drive-through café, with outline plans approved.

Plans for the new café, at Reading Link Retail Park, on Rose Kiln Lane, were approved by planning officers this week after previous safety concerns were overcome.

Similar plans were rejected by RBC in 2019 and a planning inspectorate on appeal this year due to safety concerns.

Government planning inspector Jenni Ball said vehicles would be required to make potentially dangerous manoeuvres to prevent the risk of collisions between vehicles entering and exiting the site.

And the inspector added: “It is unclear how pedestrians in particular would gain access to the proposed drive-thru.”

Developer Sorbon Estates addressed these concerns, with the following changes:

• Making the Rose Kiln Lane access point entry-only
• Reducing the width of the new access point from Rose Kiln Lane and installing a height barrier to restrict which vehicles can use this access
• Introducing pedestrian crossing points

Approval has been granted for the site location and access to the drive-through only, with design plans to follow later.

Town centre listed building will be restored

Works have been approved at a listed building in the town centre to remove unoriginal features.

Eurospeak Academy will strip out unoriginal features from inside the former NatWest building at 13 Market Place, including suspended ceilings, stud partitions, lifts and mechanical and electrical equipment.

All works will be undertaken sensitively to ensure any existing original fabric is protected.

Nursery play area approved

A play area has been approved for a new nursery at a kids gym in south Reading.

Car parking space outside Gymfinity Kids on Gillette Way will become a children’s outdoors play area, which will be used by a new nursery at the site.

‘Nurseries by Gymfinity Kids’ operate at many of the company’s existing sites, providing day care for children aged two to five years.

They follow an Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and include daily access to the gym floor areas and Gymfinity Kids qualified gymnastics coaches.

Gymfinity has 49 car parking spaces but seven will be lost to make way for the play area.

For safety and security, the play area will be enclosed by 1.8 metre close boarded fencing to its northern and eastern edges with the existing palisade fencing retained to its other boundaries.

Recycle centre expansion

A recycling centre in west Reading will be expanded by demolishing a warehouse next door.

The old UPS depot on Cardiff Road and replace it with an extension to the M. Collard Recycling Centre.

Collard Recycling Centre is a family-run business, providing skip hire and waste collection services.

The recycling centre is in the Richfield Avenue/Cardiff Road industrial estate, along with dozens of other warehouse buildings of different sizes and shapes.

The new building will be attached to the eastern side of the existing recycling centre building, to form an extension to it, and will provide an additional floorspace of around 1019sqm.

Two parking spaces with electric vehicle charging points will be added to the site.