Homes for rough sleepers built without planning permission

There have been 21 homes installed, with another 19 modular pod homes to follow in the next few weeks.

Reading Borough Council (RBC) has now applied for retrospective temporary planning permission for five years for the 40 pods near Cattle Market Car Park, having gone ahead with the plans already.

Just over half of the pods have been delivered to the Abbatoirs Road site, with the rest due to be delivered by the end of the first week in September.

The council’s policy committee approved the plans, which are funded by a £2.3 million Government grant and being delivered in conjunction with St Mungo’s, in August 2020 and started installing them in July this year.

However, the council did not seek approval from the local planning department before going ahead with the plans, leading to complaints from some residents.

Clare Kendall, commenting on the application, said she is “utterly disgusted” to be sent the letter about planning approval when the works have already begun, asking why the correct procedure had not been followed.

PICTURED: Inside the pods

Jenny Kusta, who lives in flats next door to the site, said she was not informed of plans before the pods were erected and “does not object in principle” to the plans but has “major concerns” about the security of her property and an increase in anti-social behaviour.

Another local resident, Sze Wa Wong, raised concern about overdevelopment of the site and “inhumane” sleeping conditions for occupiers next to the railway line.

Why has the council gone ahead with the plans without seeking planning permission?

More than 260 people were placed in B&B/hotel accommodation in Reading as part of the Government’s Everyone In initiative during the pandemic, with more than 100 having now been placed in permanent accommodation.

This left hundreds of people still needing accommodation, with the pods plan devised as part of the solution.

A spokesman for the council said: “Due to the need to provide emergency move on accommodation for rough sleepers housed in B&Bs during the pandemic, the developer was able to go ahead with the development and then apply for retrospective planning.

“The properties are to be for the use of people who have fallen on difficult times and have found themselves homeless as a result.

“These new homes will provide them with an opportunity to turn their lives around and engage with the relevant support they require to do so.

“The council is alive to the potential issues that may arise and as such controls have been put in place within the site design to mitigate these.”

The site will be secured and entrance will be controlled through a door entry system, with CCTV to prevent access to anyone other than those who live there.

All pods will house single people and will have 24/7 on-site support from St Mungo’s.

Once the pods are all installed, the council hopes people can move in that same month and the tenants are expected to stay at the site for two to three years.

The aim will be to get the residents ready to live independently within two years.

The pods can be moved elsewhere and are likely to move in a few years’ time, with plans to regenerate Cattle Market Car Park with a permanent housing development, which would be further away from the train tracks, in the next five to 10 years.