PLANS to construct enormous buildings that will transform the Reading skyline, upgrade a run-down train station and convert a 110-year-old swimming pool into flats were given the green light this week.

Reading Borough Council’s Planning Applications Committee approved them when it met on Wednesday, January 13.

The decisions will allow developers to press ahead with five exciting projects, that will provide hundreds of homes.

Next step of the £750 million Station Hill redevelopment 

Lincoln MGT was granted permission to demolish the NCP car park on Garrard Street and build an 18-storey office block and a pocket park, during phase two of the project.

A 70-space car park will also be built.

Work on the 125-metre-tall building, called One Station Hill, will begin in the spring and it is due to be completed in 2024.

The firm was also granted outline planning permission for a “flexible mixed-use scheme” on 128,000 sqm of land at Station Hill, which is right outside Reading Station.

It wants to build 750 homes, offices, shops, cafes and restaurants on four plots of land, with a large plaza in the middle, during phase three of the project.

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The £3.1 million upgrade of Reading West Station 

Plans to build a new glass and brick building, with a ticket office, public toilets and small shop at Reading West Station were approved.

Secure tickets barriers will be installed at both entrances to the station, as well as a new CCTV system and lighting, in a bid to improve security.

Reading Borough Council says construction could begin as early as March 2021 and the project will take around one year to complete.

Cllr Tony Page, deputy leader of the council, said the project is a “major step in the right direction” but further investment is needed so the platforms can be rebuilt and made wheelchair accessible.

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Arthur Hill Swimming Pool will become flats 

The council’s plan to convert the popular pool, which opened in 1911, into 15 flats for key workers was given the go ahead.

It says the one and two-bedroom flats will be affordable, as they will all be rented out at 80 per cent of market value.

Campaigners have been calling for the pool to be reopened since it was shut in 2016, but the council said it had become too expensive to maintain.

Cllr Josh Williams (Green Party) pointed out the council has still not opened a replacement pool in East Reading, more than four years after the closure.

The council is hoping plans to build a six-lane community pool at Palmer Park and an eight-lane competition pool at Rivermead will be approved in March.

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422 homes above Broad Street Mall 

Inception Reading, which owns the shopping centre, was granted planning permission to build the apartment blocks, that will range from five storeys to 20 storeys, in 2020.

The company can now press ahead with the project after the council’s Planning Applications Committee agreed to impose a condition stating that improvements must be made to the car park.

The condition states that “landscaping shall take place” at the council-run car park to improve the appearance and biodiversity.

In December, the committee decided not to sign off on the plans, because councillors were concerned about a lack of greenery in the car park.

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New Oxford Road flats 

Stonegate Homes has been granted permission to construct a six-storey building that contains two ground-floor retail units and 26 flats.

There will be one, two, and three-bedroom flats inside the building, which will be built on the former Battle Hospital site. Eight of them will be affordable.

According to the plans, balconies and private terraces will be provided and there will be four “living green walls” on the ground floor and solar panels on the roof.

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