Two schools are planning expansions, with one proposal proving very controversial.

Plans at Queen Anne’s School and The Abbey School have been submitted to Reading Borough Council's planning portal, with the former attracting a lot of controversy.

But Queen Anne’s School, in Caversham, has now revealed it has changed some of its proposals.

READ MORE: Five changes coming to the town centre ahead of high street re-opening The independent day and boarding school for girls from 11-18, based on Henley Road in Caversham, plans to:

  • Build a new artificial pitch, sprint track, long jump pit, with fencing and floodlights.
  • Build a pavilion and changing rooms
  • Build an indoor tennis building
  • Add floodlights to the outdoor tennis courts

More than 70 comments have been sent to the council’s planning portal about the plans.

One neighbour said of the plans: “I have no objections to school wishing to build tennis court facilities for their pupils to use.

“However, the whole tone of the application is a nakedly commercial one, with little reference to pupils. Please reject or request extensive revisions.”

Concerns raised by residents include:

  • The impact of the new “unsightly” buildings on the school’s current listed buildings
  • The use of the tennis courts by Caversham Tennis club
  • Additional traffic on a busy road
  • Impact on another quiet, private road
  • “Excessive” floodlighting “dominating the skylines”
  • Constant noise
  • Impact on wildlife

Edward Hellings, director of Finance and Strategy for Queen Anne’s, said: “We fully understand the residents’ concerns of the unknown but we are confident that they will not be adversely affected by these proposals or we would not have designed them in this way.

“We have evidenced all of our submissions with expert input to support our case and there has been nothing submitted that we have seen that challenges this advice.”

In response to concerns the school was acting “commercially”, Mr Hellings said the school had held talks with Caversham Tennis Club about sharing the existing and new tennis facilities, but this is no longer planned.

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He said the facilities will be available to the public when not in use by the school, and any profit – expected to be “relatively modest” – will be reinvested into maintenance. 

The school says it offered a site visit with residents to talk them through the proposals but this was declined.

 Queen Anne’s sent amended plans on May 5 due to the lack of an agreement with CLTC and in response to comments from council officers, but amendments have not yet appeared on the planning portal.

The amendments include:

  • The tennis courts will only be used by school pupils and so weekend use of floodlights on the tennis courts
  • The two courts closest to the badger setts will not be lit
  • Redesign of floodlighting to reduce light spillage within the site
  • Changes to parking arrangements

The school says its noise reports suggests little impact and they have ensured WHO guidelines will be met around the site and their ecological study concluded that none would be harmed as a result of the proposals.

And the school has confirmed no parking will happen on roads and they have removed the use of Grosvenor Road, which was one of main objections of residents.

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Meanwhile, The Abbey School, on Kendrick Road, is planning to build a new dining hall over its existing courtyard.

The school also wants to build an extension to its sixth form block to provide a new common room, and extra classroom space and a new study area.

One “surplus to requirements” netball court will need to be removed to make way for the plans, while sixth form parking will need to be relocated and the front facade of the sixth form building will be improved.