The developer planning to build a housing estate on Reading Golf Course is hoping to make changes to its proposals to the scheme.
In March, outline planning permission was granted to build 223 homes on the site, off Kidmore End Road in Emmer Green, despite opposition from residents and councillors.
Approval for development was secured by Fairfax and Reading Golf Club which later sold the plan to housebuilders Vistry Thames Valley.
Vistry has applied to make changes to the development in a detailed application laying out information regarding the housing mix, energy efficiency measures and more.
One of the key changes would be increasing of the number of three-bedroom homes by reducing the number of two-bedroom and four-bedroom homes.
The outline approval contained a total of 63 three-bedroom homes, 50 on market and 13 designated affordable.
This would change to 74 three-bedroom homes, with 57 being on market and 17 affordable.
It has also applied to make changes to parking, with 37 homes having approved garages removed and a second outdoor car parking space provided instead.
The number of visitor parking spaces would rise from four to 46.
Vistry wants to remove a condition to install environmentally friendly air-sourced heat pumps.
Pegasus, the planning agency for Vistry said an electricity provider warned it does not have the capacity to provide all homes with these pumps, so it intends to install just 81 homes with the green technology.
The development has been opposed from the outset by the Keep Emmer Green group, which unsuccessfully campaigned for it to be rejected.
Although the campaign scored a victory in June 2021, when a plan for 257 homes on the site was shot down, ultimately the council’s planning committee approved a 223 home application despite a record breaking number of more than 4,000 objections.
In an objection letter, the Keep Emmer Green campaign argued the detailed application is “a major step away” from the approved plans.
The campaign also pointed out that Vistry’s attempt to change conditions 19 (regarding habitat enhancement) and 20 (regarding the Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP), application reference 220738, was rejected by the council’s planning department in November.
Keep Emmer Green has highlighted that the refused changes to these conditions have resurfaced in the most recent application.
The revised application, reference 221312, can be viewed in Reading Borough Council’s planning website.
