A huge plan for hundreds of new apartments near Reading town centre could still go ahead despite councillors rejecting the project earlier this year.
Napier Court is a row of three offices in Napier Road, located directly opposite Kings Meadow and the Thames Lido.
The offices have been partly vacant for the last three years, with the remaining tenant exiting in the summer last year.
The investment company Peveril Securities applied to demolish the buildings and replace them with two huge apartment blocks totalling 11 storeys.
The development would have provided a total of 570 apartments, comprising 211 one-bed, 305 two-bed and 54 three-bed flats.
However, the project was rejected at a Reading Borough Council planning applications committee meeting on Wednesday, April 29.
While elements of the design were praised, councillors felt unable to approve the project as none of the flats would have been designated affordable.
Councillor Richard Davies (Labour, Thames), who represents the area, said: “This brownfield site offers so much promise, and this proposal offers promise as well.
“It’s got excellent links, probably some of the best in the region, and it’s right next to a major amenity in King’s Meadow. It’s obviously a very important site and offers the potential to make a big contribution to the housing need in Reading.
“There’s a lot to commend it, the number of units is really good in a really sustainable location would be a really good contribution to Reading’s housing need.
“I think the design is pretty good, the mansion design puts me in the mind of when I was in Central Park.
“There are very obvious problems with it, there are many of our policies that this contravenes, and I don’t feel that those good parts of it outweigh the weight of the problems with it, particularly the lack of affordable housing.
“That’s just not an acceptable breach of our policies.”
Micky Leng (Labour, Whitley), lead councillor for planning, also praised the design, but was equally dismissive of it as no affordable housing was proposed.
He said: “No affordable, no development.”
Cllr Leng also complained about the poor state of the offices during a site visit, mentioning litter, graffiti and the lack of hoardings to secure the buildings.
However, the development could still go ahead, as Peveril Securities has appealed against the decision to the government’s planning inspectorate.
News about the appeal features in a report to the council’s planning applications committee on the appeals that have been lodged since the last meeting.
The councillors will note the report at the next meeting on Wednesday, September 9.
You can view the application by typing reference PL/24/0846 into the council’s planning portal and find it on the government’s planning inspectorate website using reference 6014535.
