PLANS to build 1,000 flats close to Reading station will go ahead despite the council’s attempts to stop the development.
The Vastern Court development will see stores including The Range, Aldi and One Below, plus the TGI Fridays restaurant demolished and replaced with tower blocks.
Reading Borough Council had rejected the application, but developers won on appeal, ruled by government ministers. A challenge in the High Court has now been rejected.
At the time the challenge was lodged, lead councillor for planning, Cllr Micky Leng, said government ministers should not be allowed to “ride roughshod over and undermine the local democratic planning process”.
A procedural error made in the submission the challenge had to be “regretfully withdrawn”, and the development can go ahead.
A spokesperson for Reading Borough Council said: “While the council lodged the application to the High Court in time, service to other parties was not, resulting in a technical breach of procedure.”
The scheme was initially rejected during a February 2022 meeting of the council’s planning committee, fearing the proposed multi-storey towers would dwarf homes in Vastern Road, Caversham Road and the Bell Tower area.
The project also lacked detail on affordable housing.
However, the council was unable to decide on the project itself, as the deadline for a decision to be made was missed, leading to developers Aviva Life & Pensions launching an appeal.
A government-appinted planning inspector sided with the council, but that verdict was overturned by Conservative ministers at the department of levelling up, housing and communities in March.
The council spokesperson said: “While obviously disappointing, the council fully stands by its original grounds for refusal, which were upheld by an Independent Planning Inspector.
“We would emphasise that the withdrawn legal challenge relates to an outline planning permission only, which means there need to be further applications submitted for approval.
“These applications will be considered on their merits.”
Developers can submit applications for outline permission with more details being determined later on, called ‘reserved matters’. Details of access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale of the new buildings fall under this criteria.
The number of apartments provided in the future development went up from an estimated 600 in 2022 to 1,000 homes when the project was approved this year.
The outline approval can be seen by searching for reference 200328 in the council’s planning portal.
