Maidenhead town centre development to be decided
Developers want to build a seven-storey block of flats
The fate of plans to build a tall new block of flats on Maidenhead High Street is set to be decided by councillors next week.
Property developers Sorbon Estates wants permission from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to build the new seven-storey development, containing shops and 57 flats.
The developer originally wanted permission for a 13-storey building when it submitted its application in 2020. But residents objected, saying this would ‘dwarf’ other buildings in the town centre.
Sorbon Estates reduced the planned height of the new building to seven storeys after discussions with council planning officers.
Preserving
A statement by Solve Planning agents says:
“The scheme has been carefully re-designed from the ground up in order to create a suitably designed face onto West Street, while preserving the important High Street views and ensuring that the development sits well within the street scene and existing development.”
The statement adds that if approved, the development will ‘enhance the vitality and attractiveness of the western end of the High Street and significantly improve the environment of West Street’.
Recommending
Royal Borough planning officers are also recommending that councillors vote to approve the scheme.
They note that the development ‘would be the only example of a seven storey building within its immediate surroundings’.
But they say that its ‘taller elements’ wouldn’t be ‘visible from the historic High Street and are not considered to detract from the local character for pedestrians’.
They also say the BT telephone exchange on nearby West Street is a ‘precedent for taller structures’.
No public objections to plans for the smaller building have been submitted to the council.
None of the flats provided will be sold or let as ‘affordable housing’. Royal Borough planning policy says that 30 per cent of homes in developments such as this should normally be designated as such.
Planning officers say there is a ‘pressing need for affordable homes throughout the borough’. But they say Sorbon has shown that providing affordable homes would make the scheme ‘unviable’.
Instead they have agreed that Sorbon could contribute a payment to off-site affordable housing if the value of the development has increased once 75 per cent of flats are occupied.
Councillors on the Maidenhead development management committee are set to vote on whether to approve the plans on Tuesday, January 14.