Plans to demolish Woodley’s art deco former Adwest Engineering building in Woodley and replace it with 10 industrial units has gone to appeal.

HE2 Reading 1 GP has appealed Wokingham Borough Council planning committee’s June 2022 decision to refuse the application for a 184,000 sq ft industrial development on the site which extends to further land at the back of the site on Viscount Way.

The committee at the June meeting had gone against the officers’ recommendation and voted to refuse the application on heritage grounds. 

A campaign to save the front offices of the building, originally built for Miles aircraft production in the 1930s, included Julian Temple, author of Wings Over Woodley which celebrated the former Woodley Aerodrome. The building is the last remaining intact remnant of the aerodrome.

A petition to save it was signed by 4,500 people.

However, Historic England had refused to give the building listed status. The council has listed it as a non-designated heritage asset and the planning committee’s June refusal was on the grounds of the loss of any physical link to the site’s former aeronautical use. 

The appeal process started on January 30 but no date for the hearing has yet been set but representations must be received by March 20.

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