A RETAIL complex housing an Aldi store in Reading town centre is set to be demolished and replaced with 1,000 flats.
The Reading Station Shopping Park, to the north of Reading Station, will become a mixture of apartments, offices and retail space.
It is currently home to branches of Aldi, The Range, OneBelow, Majestic Wines and TGI Fridays – which has been there since August 1989.
The replacement scheme, which will include a bar and a takeaway has been approved, despite Reading Borough Council rejecting the plans.
The decision was made by Lee Rowley, the minister for housing and planning and Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, in part because the council failed to deliver a verdict on the project in time.
The plan was submitted by Aviva Life & Pensions which owns the site, in 2020. They appealed to the government after the council did not give a verdict within a target decision date.
The minister, Mr Rowley, approved the project despite planning appeal inspector Susan Heywood who judged it recommending that it be refused.
In her verdict, inspector Heywood argued that there would be ‘significant harm’ to the Reading townscape, as the existing one-storey buildings will be replaced with towers ranging from four to 18 storeys tall.
She also said that there would be harm due to the loss of protected trees and lack of appropriate planning for new tree planting and public space within the scheme.
Her suggestion was overturned by Minister Rowley, acting on behalf of Michael Gove, the minister for housing, levelling and communities.
Ultimately approving the plan, Mr Rowley wrote: “The Secretary of State notes the Inspector’s conclusions but disagrees with her recommendation.
“He has decided to allow the appeal and grant planning permission.”
Inspector Heywood conceded that there would be ‘substantial public benefits’ to the project, which included jobs for between 383 and 427 people during the construction phase, and hundreds of jobs created from the offices the scheme will provide.
The ruling is a defeat for the council, as councillors voted against the project at a meeting back in March 2022.
At the time, councillors argued it failed to provide an effective north-south link between the train station and Caversham, and that the proposed buildings would dwarf the surrounding homes.
Back then, the scheme was for around 600 apartments, but that escalated to up to 1,000 in the period between the council vote against the project and its approval this year.
The planning applications committee vote was only that it would have refused the project if it had the opportunity to deliver a verdict on it.
Ultimately the decision lay with the government, with the result being postponed from November 2023 to March 21, when Minister Rowley’s decision was issued.
As we revealed on Monday, Reading East MP Matt Rodda is calling for the decision to be reviewed.
The project can be seen by typing reference 200328 into Reading Borough Council’s planning website.
