A BUNGALOW in Whitley could be demolished to make way for nine new homes.
Brett Property Developments has applied to Reading Borough Council to build two new terraces, comprising five four-bed and four two-bed homes, on the site of a bungalow in Newcastle Road.
A neighbour and councillor fear the project will have access issues and say the homes are being ‘crammed’ into the site.
“Newcastle Road is busy enough without more houses being built,” the resident wrote.
“The road now is full of parked cars mainly caused by developers turning houses into HMOs, a double-decker bus every 10 minutes, school parking and shops.
“If this development goes through we will have to contend with construction vehicles plus the above.”
They continued: “I have viewed the plans and do not see how nine dwellings would fit into that space with parking. I’m sure it will impact and put more pressure on an already over-busy road.
“Also how are the refuse lorries going to get up that road and turn around?”
The application will be decided on by Reading Borough Council’s planning committee after it was referred by Councillor David McElroy (Green, Redlands).
“I called this proposal into committee due to the size and scale of the development, and its potential impact on green space and biodiversity,” he said. “Not to mention the effects on congestion and parking; however many new parking spaces they’re planning there will not be enough given the amount of houses crammed into that small space.
“We fear this would open the floodgates for identical developments on every backyard on that stretch of Newcastle Road, the effects of that boggle the mind.”
The development would come with 18 car parking spaces, with two spaces allocated to each new home.
The plan has been recommended for approval l subject to a section 106 legal agreement.
If this legal agreement is not signed, the council’s assistant director of planning will be given the power to refuse it.
The recommendation has been made by council planning officers, who pointed out the site has been allocated for development as policy SR4b in the Reading Local Plan 2019.
The terms of the S106 agreement state the developers must pay the council £267,250 to provide affordable housing elsewhere in the borough, and a further contribution to provide biodiversity net gain off-site.
Cllr McElroy appeared unconvinced with these measures.
He said: “We need affordable housing more than anything, but this development won’t be that.
“While the amount of money this would set aside for affordable housing sounds like a lot, it really isn’t if you think about the property market in Reading.
“Hopefully this isn’t just another example of environmentally-damaging and unaffordable housing nodded through by a supine Labour council.”
The application can be viewed by searching for reference 230974 on Reading Borough Council’s planning website.
