A HUGE plan to replace a retail park near Reading town centre with hundreds of flats has effectively expired.
The Forbury Retail Park is characterised by big box furniture stores such as Furniture Village, HomeSense and Bensons for Beds.
It is located opposite Forbury Gardens and Reading Gaol, a 10-minute walk to the town centre.
Back in February 2022, plans emerged to replace the row of eight stores and the KFC drive-thru with 12 tower blocks.
Businesses to the east, including McDonald’s, Argos, Hobbycraft and Decathlon would have been retained.
Initially, Scottish investment company Abrdn were seeking to create 900 apartments, which were scaled back to 820 flats when plans were officially submitted in May 2023.
The development was called Kings Meadow View, as future occupants would have been able to see the meadows from the towers.
But now the application has officially expired, according to a letter by Reading Borough Council.
Jonathan Markwell, the council’s principal planning officer, wrote: “There has been no recent progress on this application, with the most recently agreed extension of time for the determination of the application having expired on April 30.
“The application has been effectively dormant for over six months now, and no known attempt has been made by yourselves to appeal to the secretary of state on the grounds of non-determination within the prescribed timescale.
“It has therefore become clear to officers that there is no prospect of the above application being brought to a state where your client will be in a
position to secure permission.”
The letter was sent to the appointed planning agent for Abrdn in November.
The last planning document submitted was a sustainability appraisal that was filed as part of the project in February last year – a year and eight months ago.
Mr Markwell’s letter refers to an appeal against non-determination.
Developers are allowed to appeal to the government’s planning inspectorate if applications they submit are not decided on within statutory timeframes.
However, no appeal was submitted on this occasion.
You can view the expired application by typing reference PL/23/0822 into the council’s planning portal.
The latest news from the Forbury Retail Park was the successful licensing application from KFC to stay open for drive-thru and deliveries until 2am.
Yet the KFC website states dine-in closes at 10pm, with drive-thru and deliveries continuing until 10.45pm each night.
It is possible that KFC may require planning permission for the extended hours before they can be implemented.
The last major application to be allowed following non-determination was the outline plan to replace Reading Station Shopping Park with 1,000 flats and new commercial space.
That project was allowed by the previous Conservative government in March last year.
