Eighteen objections have been lodged with West Berkshire Council over plans to put four houses on a former play area in Tilehurst.
The application proposes that part of the site will be made available as publicly accessible space next to Linnet Close – although there are no firm plans on who will end up managing it.
The developer has indicated that they are willing to work with the Parish Council or West Berkshire Council for this to be managed by either body
There have been previous applications for residential development on this site, which was formerly used as a play area for young children. These applications were refused and subsequent appeals dismissed.
In the most recent decision in 2010 the inspector dismissed the appeal, because although the site had not been used for some time it still had an amenity value, and could still be brought back into use, and it did not constitute previously developed land.
But planners have said that in assessing the current application, there have been changes to national and local planning policy since the previous appeal was dismissed. It has now been 19 years since the site was used as a play area. It is no longer a community facility and the previous reasons for refusing the application have been overcome, and the application is considered to be acceptable.
There are objections raised about the sewer capacity of the existing network surrounding the site and about the potential for additional congestion and increase in traffic as a result of the development. The highways authority have not raised any objection to the amount of traffic that the proposal will generate.
There have been a number of objections which have referred to the loss of sunlight and daylight the houses and gardens as a result of the proposals – but the council team doesn’t agree.
Because of the number of objections, the plans will be discussed on Thursday’s Eastern Area Planning committee.
