A plan by a Slough businessman to replace his Indian restaurant with flats has been put on hold after complaints from a neighbouring church.
The owner of the Star Karahi in Herschel Street was hoping to knock down the restaurant and an upstairs flat and replace it with a new four-storey building.
The new building would have contained nine one-bed flats and two commercial units at ground level.
However, the plan for the Star Karahi at 37-39 Herschel Street has been withdrawn after objections from the New Testament Church of God located right next door.
Concerns were raised that the new building would block light coming into the church, which holds faith activities on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as well as on Sundays.
An elevation sketch of the now-scrapped project showed the new building being approximately one storey taller than the church.
In a planning objection, a senior member of the church said: “I have met with my Church and Pastor’s Council and we are very concerned regarding these proposed works and it is also raising concern amongst our church membership.
“Our main point of concern is the light coming into our church building that the new proposed building would block.
“We note from the plans available online that the proposed building would be taller than our church building blocking a high percentage of light coming through the church windows.”
The representative of the church also objected to the amount of new flats proposed, as the restaurant owner hoped to have three flats built on the first, second and third floors of the replacement building.
Designs showed each flat coming with a double-bedroom, a toilet with a shower and kitchen and living facilities.
The church representative said: “Also of concern is the number of proposed flats that would be densely packed into such a small area.
“Such a proposed multi-occupancy building would lead to overcrowding, poor conditions and fire risk, as currently planned.
“There are already new flats being built in the area as well as properties that are unoccupied which questions the need for further flats being built.”
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The Star Karahi is owned by Mohammed Shahid, who previously said the business had been hit with difficulties as a result of the closure of the junction of Herschel Street and Alpha Street North, which ‘cut off’ trade coming from the south and the east.
The junction had reopened by May 2021. Mr Shahid also said the coronavirus pandemic caused a decline in trade.
Star Karahi previously occupied the entirety of 37-39 Herschel Street, but Mr Shahid decided to divide the property into three to allow other businesses to occupy two individual units.
One of these is occupied by Rumi Pizza. It is understood the central unit is currently vacant.
No fresh application for the site has emerged yet.
You can view the withdrawn application by typing reference P/10083/009 into Slough Borough Counciol’s planning portal.
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