A plan to build three town houses near one of the busiest areas of West Reading has been rejected.
Development company Infill Land Consultants was hoping to build three town houses on an unused site in Ivanhoe Close.
The site is situated off Western Elms Avenue, which has a mixed reputation for having impressive period houses but has also had a history of alleged prostitution.
The site is in easy walking distance to Lidl, McDonalds and Reading West station.
The application was rejected by Reading Borough Council’s planning department in April last year, stating the project would have a ‘detrimental’ ecological impact.
Infill Land Consultants submitted an appeal against this decision to the government’s planning inspectorate, hoping to get it overturned.
A key factor of the appeal was the ecological value of the site, which has trees and became overgrown.
A report into the appeal by planning officer Marcelina Rejwerska states: “The applicant had completed extensive site clearance, with some of the site falling within an identified Green Link.
“The appellant was unable to demonstrate what the ecological value of the site would have been prior to clearance, and therefore officers were unable to fully assess the extent of the resultant harm.
“The appellant then submitted the previously requested ecological surveys at the appeal stage, requiring officers to spend a considerable amount of time assessing this new information.”
Ultimately, inspector Beth Astley-Serougi dismissed the appeal last month.
Officer Rejewerska’s report states: “The inspector agreed with the council that the development, although acceptable in its design, posed considerable harm to the ecological value of the site and this outweighed the benefit of three new dwellings and the appeal was dismissed on that basis.”
The council has also submitted a claim for almost £10,000 due to the late submission of information by the applicants, which it won, meaning discussions about payment have been opened with Infill Land Consultants’ planning agents.
The report was presented to the council’s planning applications committee.
Councillor Karen Rowland (Labour, Abbey) congratulated officers for devising sound policy reasons for refusal, both in this case and another dismissed appeal over a home replacement plan in Caversham.
She said: “In both cases, the inspector said that we had slated this correctly, biodiversity was a determining factor on both of these, I’m really pleased to see that as we all trundle forward in our climate emergency, I think those are very important factors.
“I applaud our officers stepping up, noticing that and being very proactive in that.”
You can view the refused application by typing reference PL/23/1491 into the council’s planning portal.
