Positive changes are on the way at a Woodley church that is used as a base of operations for food bank charities.
The Emmanuel Church Centre has been in South Lake Crescent since 1991.
Part of the Church of England, it serves Christians in the neighbourhood and has become a hub for food banks in Woodley.
The church applied to replace two existing cabins on site with one large prefabricated cabin to better facilitate the food charities it hosts, Woodley Foodbank, Lunch Bunch and Share.
This project has now been determined by Wokingham Borough Council, the planning authority.
It was noted that enforcement notices were issued over an approved plan for a single-storey extension to the church that was given permission in September 2019.
The notice was served after council planning officers found that bollards at the entrance to the church had not been built, the bike racks did not match the approved plans, the disabled and larger parking spaces were not designated, and that the laid tarmac was not extended to the front of car park, leading to narrower access road to parking and loss of parking spaces.
The latest plan attempted to address these concerns, with an admission that parking spaces would go down from the 33 in the original plan to 29.
The project was assessed by a council planning officer, who judged that the changes would have a significant social benefit.
It was approved on Friday, June 20, on the condition that all cooked food be prepared in the main building, as the prefabricated building does not have ventilation equipment.
You can view the approved application by typing reference 250183 into Wokingham council’s planning portal.
