A plan for flats above a busy cafe in Reading town centre has cleared a crucial hurdle, allowing the project to go ahead.
The short stay serviced apartments are due to be created by converting offices above the Caffè Nero in St Marys Butts.
Elsewhere, work can soon begin on a storage building at The Royal Berkshire Archives, and a plan to turn a car park over to public use has hit a delay.
You can view each decided application by typing the references in brackets into Reading Borough Council’s planning portal.
Plan to convert offices into short-stay flats above Caffè Nero moving ahead (PL/24/1593)
The owner of St Marys House at the junction of St Marys Butts and Broas Street has officially won permission to create 37 short-stay flats above Caffè Nero.
The project involves turning offices into 31 serviced apartments and extending the building to provide six more serviced flats.
A private developer won permission for the plan from the council’s planning applications committee in March, but needed to sign a legal agreement before the project could go ahead.
The developer and Investec Bank signed the legal agreement on June 12.
The agreement stipulates that people who hire the serviced apartments can only stay for a maximum of three months.
Work on Royal Berkshire Archive extension set to begin (PL/25/0788)
Work on an extension for The Royal Berkshire Archives in Coley Avenue is set to begin following permission from the council.
The extension will stretch across two storeys, providing more space to increase storage capacity.
The project was approved in August 2022 on the condition that no development can commence until biodiversity enhancements are submitted and approved by the council.
That has been adjusted to allow development at slab level on June 16.
Public car park at former offices suffers delay (PL/25/0601)
Progress on a plan to bring a car park into use at closed offices near Reading train station has hit a delay.
The office at Norman Place off Vastern Road was previously occupied by Covea Insurance.
The car park for the building is set to be brought into use as a public car park with 55 spaces.
However, a site security strategy submitted by applicant Woodrow was refused due to insufficient CCTV coverage on June 13.
Changes to Barclays Bank coming (PL/25/0581 and PL/25/0582)
Barclays is due to install a new ATM machine at its branch in Reading town centre.
An existing machine outside the bank in Broad Street will be replaced with a new ATM, allowing cash to be withdrawn and cash and cheques to be deposited.
Associated works, including advertising, were approved by the council’s planning department on June 11.
