Plan for homes with rocky history in Reading decision due

Development company Irongate Property applied to build 46 homes contained within three buildings at 9 Upper Crown Street this summer. 

The site is near the town centre, taking under 10 minutes to walk to The Oracle.

In order for the apartments to be built, the existing Old Customs House building would have to be demolished. The site is currently occupied by Secure Records & Data Management, a self-storage company.

The plan would see the Customs House replaced with two apartment buildings and a terrace of four homes.

What the site looks like in Upper Crown Street, Reading at the moment. Credit: Google Maps

One of the new apartment buildings would contain 28 flats, with the other containing 14 affordable apartments.

In all, the development would be made up of 22 one-bed, 16 two-bed and four three-bed flats and four three-bedroom terraced houses. Furthermore, 86 car parking spaces would be provided.

Of those, 16 parking spaces would be reserved for the 46 homes, with the remaining 70 would be reserved for residents who use the site as a car park.

Therefore, those who currently use the site to park for residential and commercial purposes will experience no loss in provision.

Irongate Property has a rocky history with its proposals for the site.

An earlier iteration of the plan proved unpopular with the council’s planning department, with planning officer Matt Burns recommending that it be refused, arguing that it would cause a loss of privacy and be an ‘overdevelopment’ of the site.

Ultimately, the earlier plan (reference 211614) was refused in June 2022.

READ MORE: 46 homes plan near Reading town centre refused

Irongate Property launched an appeal against the decision, but the appeal was dismissed by the government’s planning inspectorate in March this year.

While Inspector M Chalk praised the plan for providing affordable housing in a sustainable location on a brownfield site, it was ultimately concluded that one of the buildings would cause undue overlooking into neighbours’ gardens.

Inspector Chalk wrote: “The height and overbearing presence of the taller building would result in the rear gardens and outlook from the rear of the houses being compromised to the extent that living conditions for occupiers would be unacceptable.

“This harm would outweigh the benefits arising from the proposed development.”

But now, council planning officer Tom Bradfield has recommended the current application for approval.

In a report, Mr Bradfield pointed out that the plan has been changed by a greater separation distance between one of the apartment buildings and the proposed terraced houses.

The building plan for two proposed apartment buildings and terraced houses in Upper Crown Street near Reading town centre. Credit: Colony Architects

The change has been made in an attempt to address the reasons that the original plan was refused.

The current scheme for Upper Crown Street is set to be decided at the council’s planning applications meeting on Wednesday, October 5.

You can view it by typing reference 230814 into the council’s portal.