Plans to replace a long-closed Reading pub with flats has been withdrawn.
The Restoration on Oxford Road has been closed since 2015. It sits at a prominent location near Waitrose and the busy Norcot Road junction.
A plan had been submitted to demolish the pub and replace it with a three-storey residential building containing 18 flats, 16 car parking spaces and 36 cycle spaces.
However, the project to replace The Restoration has been put on hold, with a planning application that was validated in February last year now withdrawn.
There are reports that the pub building is currently occupied by squatters, according to a local Facebook page.
A long-term squatter can become the registered owner of a building if they have occupied it continuously for 10 years according to the government.
But the owner of the building and its land is looking to submit a fresh planning application for the project at a later date, with the new submission taking into account building regulations that have come into force.
New rules were introduced in October which define minimum space allowances for properties and the amount of staircases in larger buildings, to provide suitable fire escapes for occupants.
A new application will comply with all of these regulations, according to the owner’s planning agent Jeff Asemi from Bluebird Engineering Ltd.
Mr Asemi said: “The new building regulations came into effect on October 1, and the regulations are rightly more stringent.”
The plan was withdrawn on Thursday, November 2.
