A local landmark in west Reading known as the ‘fine’ Edwardian house is set to become nine flats, after a fifth application from the owner was approved by the council.

Developer Eric Benjamin finally won approval from Reading Borough Council (RBC) to turn the house at 39 Brunswick Hill into flats at the fourth time of asking in March but decided eight flats was not enough.

Last night (Wednesday, October 6), the council’s Planning Applications committee unanimously approved the latest proposal to convert the villa into nine flats.

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Councillor Tony Page, lead member for planning at RBC, said: “Those of us who have been long-standing members of the committee will remember the various battles we have had with regard to this site.

“There has been 30 years of attempts to demolish 39 Brunswick Hill during which time this committee has consistently opposed that.

“I think we can chalk up a fairly substantial victory for the retention of this building.”

In total there have been seven attempts to turn the Edwardian villa into apartments in the last 32 years from three different developers.

The first four of these involved demolishing the house and building flats and were all refused by the council’s Planning Applications committee.

Mr Benjamin, having had the last two of these attempts refused in March 2018 and September 2019, changed tack and applied to convert the villa into flats in December 2019.

This was also rejected and, like his two previous applications, his appeal was refused by a planning inspector.

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However, the planning inspector’s decision on the appeal paved the way for the next plan to be approved, setting out what would be acceptable.

The next application, submitted in December 2020, was approved in March 2021, with reluctance from some councillors, having overcome previous concerns.

However, Mr Benjamin decided eight flats was not enough and submitted the latest plans with the following changes:

  • The existing storage area on the lower ground floor will be enlarged and re-used to provide an additional one-bed flat
  • The flat will re-use existing openings including windows and doors. An existing small high—level window on the front elevation will be slightly enlarged.
  • One flat slightly enlarged to provide a one-bedroom flat as opposed to the previous scheme which was for a studio flat.

At the meeting, Cllr Page the changes are “relatively minor and not ones that could justify refusal” but said he is “sceptical” about whether the owner “seriously” intends to carry out the works.

He added: “I hope that this is the end of a series of applications at this site and we can finally see an acceptable conversion of this building and, above all, the retention of a building that we all regard as an important local landmark and that we can take pride in having protected.

“We look very much forward to the works finally taking place.”