Planning roundup: Five flats, new shoe shop and schools seek extensions

In other planning news, two schools have sought extensions, with one seeking an extra three years at a temporary location in south Reading and the other seeking to keep a temporary classroom building next to its main building for five more years.

Extra flat approved at town centre offices

READ MORE: Plan to turn vacant Reading town centre solicitors offices into flats

St Laurence House, 10-12 The Forbury

The council previously approved permission to convert former offices on the ground floor of St Laurence House, 10-12 The Forbury, into four flats.

However, the developer omitted one flat from the plan due to further information being required as to whether or not habitable areas of the flat would be adequately served by natural light.

The developer has since applied for permission for the extra flat at the back of the building on the ground floor and this has now been approved by RBC planning officers.

The three-storey building already has flats on the upper floors, with the vacant former EJ Winter & Sons LLP Solicitors on the ground floor now set to become five flats.

Next could become shoe shop

The empty Next store

A closed Next store in the town centre is set to become a shoe shop.

Deichmann Shoes has submitted plans to Reading Borough Council (RBC) to set up a shoe shop at 55-59 Broad Street, most recently home to Next.

The German company has dozens of stores across the UK, including in Newbury, Bracknell, Slough and Basingstoke.

The largest footwear retailer in Europe, the company has applied for permission for ‘proposed new advertisement’ at the retail store, seeking to change the signage.

READ MORE: Closed Next store to become another high street shoe shop

Christian school asks for extended stay at Reading site

The Quad

An evangelical Christian independent school which temporarily set up in Reading two years ago is seeking another three years in the town due to difficulty getting planning permission in a village near High Wycombe.

One School Global’s secondary school campus is currently based in south Reading, on Arkwright Road, after the government forced it to leave its previous home in Stoke Poges.

READ MORE: Evangelical Christian school asks for extra time at ‘temporary’ Reading site

The school is for members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church – a conservative Christian religion which most members are born into.

Proposals to turn a former horse-riding centre, owned by the church, in Chequers End into a school were rejected in July 2019 by Wycombe District Council, which said it is “simply the wrong place for it” due to the rural nature of the area.

But the Christian organisation won planning permission in the same month from Reading Borough Council (RBC) to set up temporarily at The Quad, 14 Arkwright Road, Reading, for two academic years.

That permission expires on July 19, 2021, with the church now seeking permission for a further three-year stay for One School Global at the former offices in Reading, to give it time to win planning permission and construct the school.

School seeks extra five years for temporary classroom building

Alfred Sutton Primary School (5/5, June 2016)

Finally, a school in east Reading is seeking permission to keep a temporary building with classrooms in it next to its main building on playing fields land for another five years.

READ MORE: School applies for pupils to be taught in temporary classrooms for 5 years longer

Alfred Sutton Primary School, which is on Crescent Road, has applied for the temporary planning permission to retain its double-stack modular building, which has four classrooms, so it can take on more pupils.

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