Plans to turn offices into flats in the town centre have been rejected once again.

Two developers applied to convert offices at 6-8 Market Place into 100 flats but Reading Borough Council (RBC) planning officers have refused both applications due to noise concerns.

This means three applications have now been refused in less than three months.

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Three months, three refusals

Before the three refusals, a plan from Castleforge Partners to extend the ‘Soane Point’ offices by five storeys and make it a mix of co-working spaces and private offices was withdrawn after concerns were raised by City Pub Group, which owns the neighbouring Market House.

A subsequent application Tene Living to convert the three-to-four storey offices into 144 studio apartments was then refused by RBC in May, with officers citing concerns about noise and contamination.

The developer has since appealed this decision.

Tene Living then submitted plans to convert the building into 76 studio apartments and 24 one-bed flats in June.

Earlier this month, a rival plan was submitted by Business Environment SoanePoint, a very similar proposal with a slightly different layout.

Why the plans have been refused

Both plans have been refused due to concerns that future occupiers would be adversely affected by noise from extractor fans from nearby commercial properties.

The exact same reason for refusal has been given to each proposal.

Officers said residents would not be able to open their windows without being exposed to noise which will potentially amount to a nuisance being up to 30dBA above background levels.

They added: “This impact is exacerbated by the fact the majority of the proposed flats are studio units consisting of a single room meaning that when a window is open there would not be any habitable part of the flats unaffected by noise.

“In addition, given that the plant noise is continuous, there would be no quiet time for future occupiers, unlike with other town centre noises such as music venues/bars which quieten down during night time hours reducing the level of nuisance.”

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Officers concluded that the application fails to demonstrate that future occupiers of the flats would not be subject to unacceptable noise impacts from existing, surrounding commercial premises.

The developers had attempted to address this issue by implementing a ventilation system which would mean residents would not have to open their windows but officers did not consider this acceptable.

While contamination concerns raised in the 144-flat plan were overcome, with the communal room removed from the latest proposals, the issue of noise remains unresolved.