Dozens of flats could take up car parking space at one of Reading’s Tesco superstores.

Development company Ridgepoint Homes has submitted a plan to build 80 flats on the existing car park of the Tesco Extra superstore in Portman Road, West Reading.

Designs show the flats being contained in one large L-shaped four-storey apartment block containing 74 two-bed and six one-bed flats.

Each new apartment would have one car parking space allocated to it, totalling 80 car spaces and 40 cycle parking spaces.

Ridgepoint Homes has not defined how many car parking spaces will be lost for Tesco customers, but it is estimated that more than 100 spaces would be removed from use.

Planning agents for the developers state that the section of the car park is ‘surplus to requirement’.

Drivers living in the proposed development would have convenient access to the Tesco petrol station which lies immediately east of the site.

The site is also made up of a recycling store and a mound which was formed from building rubble from previous development in the area.

Of the 80 apartments, 24 (30 per cent) would be designated as affordable and four (five per cent) would be wheelchair-accessible.

As well the construction of the apartment building, the scheme contains ‘enabling works’ which would involve removing the tarmac car park surface.

That would allow Ridgepoint Homes to create new green spaces, with an aim to retain existing trees to the north of the site and plant new ones where possible.

You can view the application for the 80 flats on the Tesco car park by typing reference 231041 into the council’s planning portal.

The apartment block would be surrounded by apartment buildings and homes that make up the former Battle Hospital site, with these buildings containing hundreds of flats.

Ridgepoint Homes have stated the ‘design rationale’ for the planned apartment block has been devised to look similar to neighbouring buildings, particularly those that make up the Renaissance Reading development of 211 homes built by Belway Homes.

The developers originally intended to build 74 apartments split into two buildings, containing a mix of one and two-bed flats.

However, that scheme was abandoned in favour of the single L-shaped apartment that makes up the current proposal.

The plan was validated on the council’s planning portal on Thursday, August 17, with the stated consultation period for the application ending on the following day.

It is believed that the consultation period will be extended by Reading Borough Council to allow the public to comment on the plan.