Reading town centre offices could be converted into flats

North Gate House near Forrbury Gardens, which had served as an office for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) could be turned into 78 flats.

Elsewhere the NHS Trust that runs the Royal Berkshire Hospital has applied to build a new clinical block for its urology service.

You can view each application submitted by typing its reference in brackets into the council's planning portal.

Conversion of offices into flats in town centre (240799)

Protesters outside the department for environment, food and rural affairs in Valpy Street, Reading town centre.

AEW, which is one of the biggest asset owners in Reading, has applied to convert the vacant North Gate House building at 21 Valpy Street into 87 flats.

The building near Forbury Gardens until recently served as an office for DEFRA, with an environmental protest held there last September.

The office is now listed as permanently closed, with AEW planning to convert it into apartments.

If it goes ahead, the conversion would provide 44 two-bed and 18 one-bed and two three-bed apartments, and 16 studio flats.

New urology block for Royal Berkshire Hospital (240829)

(Image: GBS Health)

The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has applied to build a new clinical block for urology at the hospital site in Craven Road.

Urology covers procedures such as the installation of catheters and vasectomies, a method of sterilisation for men.

The new building will be part two-to-one storeys tall, and located to the far south of the Royal Berkshire Hospital site.

The project has been devised after the Trust was awarded money from the NHS Elective Capital Fund, which was set up to bring down the elective procedure backlog caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Conversion of house into flats (240656 and 240657)

(Image: Pioneer Designs)

The owner of a terraced home in Southampton Street has applied to convert it into a four-person home of multiple occupation (HMO).

The house currently serves as a family home, with the owner aiming to convert rooms to provide two bedrooms each on the first and second floors.

Each would come with an ensuite shower toilet, with a shared dining room, lounge, kitchen and toilet on the ground floor.

A planning agent stated the project also involves refurbishment of the house as it 'has been vacant for several years and has become derelict'.

Extensions to Caversham home (240860)

(Image: Pioneer Designs)

The owner of a detached home in Caversham has applied to construct a two-storey extension to the house to provide more living space.

It currently has a kitchen and dining room, a living room, a shower, a garage and a patio on the ground floor, and two bedrooms, a shower toilet and an office on the first floor.

The two-storey extension would create space for a new entrance and storage space to replace the garage at ground level, and a new master-bedroom on the first floor.