This week's roundup of the latest decisions on planning applications in Reading includes three new houses and a homeowner with plans to demolish their house and build a new one with a swimming pool.
Also in the roundup, an unauthorised water sports centre in Caversham has been refused planning permission due to concerns about its impact on the environment, wildlife and biodiversity.
Finally, we update on the latest planning applications and new plans to build hundreds of homes at the old Reading Golf Club site.
READ MORE: New 223-home Reading Golf Club Plans Unveiled
Previous proposals for homes at the golf club received a record-breaking 3,000-plus objections.
Three houses plan next to woodland withdrawn
Plans to build three houses in south-east Reading have been withdrawn after concerns were raised about the impact on nearby woodland.
Developer PNM Construction planned to build one four-bedroom house and two three-bedroom houses on Highmead Close.
The houses would have been built on a large garden at the end of two houses in the cul-de-sac and would have been right next to the East Reading Wooded Ridgeline – an area of protected woodland.
Council officers raised concerns about disturbance to wildlife, increase in noise and light pollution and the introduction non-native species from the garden.
Natural environment officer Andrei Nazare said the plans failed to demonstrate lack of harm to important trees adjacent to the site and would not provide sufficient planting.
While a neighbour said the three houses would be an overdevelopment of the plot and cause flooding issues.
House to be demolished and replaced with swimming-pool equipped home
A house in Caversham Heights will be demolished and replaced with a mock Georgian building with a swimming pool.
Officers said the current two-storey detached dwelling, Norbrook House on Upper Warren Avenue, “is not considered to be of any particular architectural merit” and so accepted the principle of demolishing it.
And they said the “attractive” mock Georgian design would not be harmful to the character and appearance of the surrounding area.
The garden will include a pool and BBQ area.
Shop-to-house conversion approved
A shop in west Reading will be converted into a house.
Previously home to convenience store B Good Brother, 73 Norfolk Road, the two storey mid-terraced currently has the shop on the ground floor and a two-bed flat, accessed through the shop, on the first floor and the rear part of the ground floor.
The shop will be converted to create a two-storey house with extra communal space.
Water sports park permission refused
An unauthorised water sports centre in Caversham has been refused planning permission due to concerns about its impact on the environment, wildlife and biodiversity.
Caversham Lakes, North Lake, Henley Road, was opened by Cosmonaut Leisure last year without planning permission.
A retrospective planning application for the change of use of the site was submitted in September 2020, a month after the venue opened.
South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) has now refused planning permission but Cosmonaut Leisure plans to stay and submit further applications. The developer has six months to appeal the decision.
READ MORE: Controversial Caversham Lakes water sports park refused planning permission
New plans: Golf club homes, 5G tower and apartment block
Earlier this week, we reported on two new planning applications, a 20-metre 5G tower in Caversham and a four-storey apartment block planned to replace a funeral home on Southampton Street.
Finally, new plans were unveiled this week for the controversial Reading Golf Club development.
The previous hugely unpopular previous plans for 257 homes were rejected in July.
The new application, yet to be submitted, will be for up to 223 homes on 30 acres of land.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here