An appeal is likely after councillors refused plans for the Eagle Quarter in Newbury.
More than five years after it was first submitted, members of West Berkshire’s district planning committee turned down Lochailort’s plans to replace the ailing Kennet shopping centre with a development of 427 Build-to-Rent (BTR) flats in nine blocks, 3,117 sq m of Class E space for independent and artisan businesses and a new pedestrian link to the railway station and Market Place.
Members at the committee’s January 8 meeting decided to go against the officers’ recommendation and refuse the scheme on four grounds:
- Impact on historic environment through height, bulk and mass
- Lack of affordable housing
- Insufficient parking
- Insufficient private amenity space
Parking was discussed at length during the four-hour meeting with the total provision of 475 spaces, most of which are already provided in the existing multi-storey, the centre of arguments about whether it was enough.
Anthony Pick, chair of the Newbury Society, told the meeting: “A car park designed and built to provide for residents and for visitors to Newbury at a retail, entertainment and cultural centre, is being reassigned for use by Newbury residents without regard for possible expansion in demand in the future years – which can be foreseen and which can also be unforeseeable – and without regard for the increase in size of vehicles which is currently occurring.”
He argued that new car parking should be provided within the Eagle Quarter itself.
Lochailort director Hugo Haig said the scheme would provide £8.5 million annual additional expenditure in the town.
And he responded to the car parking debate, stating: “This does not take into consideration the tenure. Build-to-Rent has a far less high car parking requirement than a private scheme.”
Mr Haig said the developer’s 315-flat Thames Quarter BTR scheme in Reading has only around 50 spaces in its car park (15 per cent), adding: “And it’s hardly ever full.”
Cllr Tony Vickers estimated that the chances of a planning inspector dismissing the scheme at any subsequent appeal, have lengthened from 20-1 to around 99-1. He said the scheme could help avoid green field development by delivering some of the council’s required number of new homes.
Car clubs among the BTR residents, he said, will help reduce the need for parking spaces.
He said: “We are not building this development for ourselves and our generation. This is not an elderly persons’ development and if it was, perhaps they wouldn’t need cars. It’s for a new generation.”
The meeting was the third time the scheme had come to committee. It was first debated by the Western area planning committee in October, then the district planning committee in November, where members couldn’t reach a decision in the time permitted.
In a statement issued on January 9, Lochailort said: “We are extremely disappointed with the decision at last night’s committee. We have worked hard with officers and members over the last few years. Indeed, we agreed to withdraw our appeal of the previously refused scheme on the basis of reassurances given by the executive team at the council.
“We received a strong recommendation for approval from officers, with a thorough and extensive committee report that fully justified their recommendation. In addition, officers advised at the meeting that the West Berkshire now has a housing shortfall of circa 500 houses over the next five years and as such the ‘tilted balance’ now applies in West Berkshire in favour of delivering housing particularly in the most sustainable locations.
“We are talking about the redevelopment of the most sustainable site in the district – a complex brownfield site containing an unloved carbuncle of a shopping centre at the end of its natural life. The equivalent development on a greenfield site would take around 50 acres of land.
“The council has declared a climate emergency and can’t deliver enough housing. The redevelopment of this brownfield site would provide around a year’s worth of the Council’s housing shortfall in a sustainable location, and that the equivalent number of units would take up around 50 acres of greenfield land with the traffic associated with edge of town locations.
“Despite this, members voted to refuse the scheme on matters that officers had thoroughly assessed and considered acceptable in their report.
“Lochailort Newbury are considering their position but in all likelihood will probably appeal the decision.”
© Thames Tap (powered by ukpropertyforums.com).
Sign up to receive our weekly free journal, The Forum here.
