NEW details of the Station Hill development have been published revealing there will be a cinema and gym. 

Documents with detailed plans were published on Reading Borough Council’s website as planners gave outline permission.

This includes things like appearance, layout, landscaping and scale. Lincoln MGT is the company developing Station Hill. 

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Two plots, E and F, in the development will have 538 flats in total. Both the plots, between Garrard Street and Friar Street will be 12-storeys high. 

There will be space for new shops: 1,151 square metres of floor space in plot E, and 656 square metres in plot F. 

This August scaffolding at the development collapsed, injuring three people. The scaffolding was surrounding an old building that was being demolished. 

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The new plans show car parking, rooms for storing rubbish, a ‘resident move in-out bay’, and a car wash area. 

The flats will be ‘build-to-rent’, which not everybody is happy about. One local resident, Sierra Mesplie-Cowan, wrote to the council with her views. 

She said: “This is a build-to-let building alike with the Napier Road construction. Mass letting does not support people trying to buy in Reading. 

“Mass letting also ruins the communities surrounding these areas as there will be an influx of ever-changing tenants.” 

In documents also sent to the council, designers of the development said: “This build-to-rent development responds to demand for rental accommodation in Reading and it will nurture tenant loyalty through high-quality day-to-day management and residents’ identification with the place they live. 

“Within the buildings, a strong sense of community will be nurtured by having a central entrance in Plot E that includes concierge, post and parcel rooms, … lounges, waiting areas, play zones and a gym.

“The development will be a place residents will be proud to call home, and it will make a major contribution to the realisation of Reading Council’s ambitions for Station Hill and the town centre.” 

The plans show 165 car parking spaces, room for storing 360 bicycles and 16 electric vehicle charging points.