This week’s planning roundup of decisions made in Reading includes restoring historic buildings in the town centre, replacing dangerous cladding at two hotels, a new car rental site and new houses.

All applications in this week's roundup are decided on by Reading borough Council (RBC).

Listed town centre buildings to be restored

READ MORE: Plans submitted to restore listed town centre buildings back to original state

Historic listed buildings in the town centre will be transformed back to their original state after being altered over many years.

Plans submitted by 159 Reading TE to the council to refurbish the 149-150 Friar Street and 1-4 Queen Victoria Street building and return it to its original state were approved by the council this week.

The building is “currently in a poor state of repair and has been much altered and much changed from its original state on the ground floors”, according to 159 Reading TE.

The plans received no objections but did receive one positive comment from a resident.

Ryan Shook said: “I have skimmed through the Planning, Heritage, Design & Access Statement and am impressed by the intention to restore, enhance and invest in this building in a key location. It all seems positive to me.”

Car showroom to become another car rental site

A former car showroom will be demolished and replaced with a car rental site.

The council has granted permission to demolish the vacant building at 171 Basingstoke Road,  and build an Enterprise Rent-A-Car office and car rental site.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car was already granted permission this year in March for another new site in Reading at Cow Lane.

READ MORE: New car rental site coming to Reading’s Cow Lane, next to cycle and pedestrian path

The two new sites will join the three Enterprise Rent-A-Car locations already in Reading, at:

  • Q-park, Chatham Street, in central Reading
  • Boulton Road, in south Reading
  • 796 Oxford Road, in west Reading

Two houses approved

Plans to build two houses on empty land on Oxford Road have been approved by the council.

Two one-bedroom houses will be built at land at the back of of 578 and 580-584 Oxford Road.

The council had refused a similar plan in 2012, but this was overturned by planning inspectors on appeal.

This council said this latest plan would be only slightly bigger and the slight increase in scale would not be sufficiently harmful to warrant a reason for refusal.

Planning officers concluded that the benefits of the development outweighed any concerns.

Dangerous cladding at hotels will be removed

Dangerous cladding at two hotels in Reading’s town centre will be removed.

The 14-storey Ibis and Novotel hotels on Friar Street have cladding which is “unsafe in the event of fire”.

Reading Borough Council (RBC) has approved building owner Accor Invest’s application to remove and replace the metal panel cladding.

LMA Architects, which submitted the proposals on behalf of Accor Invest, said: “The flammability and the proximity of the insulated metal panels to the fire escape route and neighbouring buildings, renders the cladding unsafe in the event of a fire.”