Conversion of a building vacant for more than a decade into 18 flats near Reading town centre has been refused.
Trinity Hall, at the junction of South Street and Sidmouth Street, previously served as student halls before becoming unoccupied in 2014.
However, a plan to turn the vacant building into flats has been refused.
That is just one of the planning decisions Reading Borough Council has made recently.
Close by, a college will be renamed, and in the town centre, a burrito takeaway is set to get a new look.
You can view each decided application by typing the reference in brackets into Reading Borough Council’s planning portal.
Conversion of vacant building into flats refused (PL/24/1079)
The company Hanslink has failed in its plan to turn Trinity Hall into flats.
The conversion would have created a three-bed flat, 10 two-bed and seven one-bed flats.
However, planning officer Ethne Humphreys judged that extensions proposed to create more spaces for the flats would be ‘excessively dominant’ and ‘discordant’, with the project being rejected on June 20.
A previous plan to replace Trinity Hall with 22 flats was refused by the council’s planning applications committee in June 2023, and a planning inspector last year.
College given permission to be renamed (PL/25/0665)
The College of Estate Management has been given permission to be renamed the University of the Built Environment.
Situated opposite Trinity Hall at the junction of Sidmouth Street and Queens Road, has been granted consent to replace five signs to reflect the name change.
The advertising details were judged to be acceptable and were approved on June 18.
New look for Tortilla Mexican fast food approved (PL/25/0359)
The Tortilla Mexican fast food restaurant in the town centre will be getting a fresh new look.
Tortilla has been in Broad Street since October 2020, serving tortillas, burritos, tacos and more to customers.
Now the company will be changing its frontage from its wooden block branding to a new white tiled fascia with red lettering.
The new branding was judged acceptable, with advertising consent being granted on June 18.
Self storage company taken over in multi-million pound acquisition (PL/25/0643)
The Lok’nStore in Reading is being rebranded after a multi-million pound acquisition last year.
Shurgard Self Storage acquired the competing company for £378 million, which came into effect last August.
The change means that the Lok’nStore along the A33 Relief Road will be rebranded after advertising consent was granted on June 20.
The project involves new Shurgard red paint and white lettering will replace the Lok’nStore orange paint and blue lettering.
