Decision due on Reading FC stadium redevelopment works

Plans have been in the works for a decade for a major redevelopment of the grounds around the Select Car Leasing Stadium, involving the creation of 600 apartments, a convention centre and an ice rink.

The project, called ‘Royal Elm Park’ in honour of the former football stadium in West Reading, will also see a 246-room hotel and 616 spaces provided in a new multi-storey car park.

But in order for the development to go ahead, crucial enabling works have to be approved by Reading Borough Council.

The development was approved by the council in 2018, with the applicant, Reading Football Club Property Company, having to fulfil a number of legal obligations it agreed with the council.

One of these is to make sure that land that could be contaminated by gas and waste is made safe.

This is pertinent as the site was previously used as a landfill rubbish dump between 1972 and 1985, before it was turned into surface-level parking in time for the opening of the stadium in 1998.

Last year, the Reading FC Property Company received approval for adjustments to contaminated land conditions to enable work to begin on Phase 1 of the project, which involves the construction of the multi-storey car park.

The company has also applied to change the wording of contaminated land conditions to enable further works to go ahead.

The changes effectively state that land management and remedial works must be carried out until the council is satisfied that waste and gases are unlikely to be a hazard.

The proposed wording also states that ground gas risks should be assessed to British Standards, and that the Reading FC Property Company must pay a land management monitoring contribution until the council is satisfied that the gas and waste hazard has been removed.

Because of the legal nature of the changes proposed, a decision will be made by the council’s planning applications committee when it meets on Wednesday, September 9.

Alison Amoah, one of the council’s principal planning officers, has recommended that the adjusted wording should be approved.

Her report on the changes states: “The modifications proposed would align with the land contamination and gas remediation obligations with the contamination and land gas condition wording previously approved by officers and is, therefore, considered acceptable and it is therefore recommended that the variation sought is agreed.”

You can view the application by typing reference PL/25/0705/DOV into the council’s planning portal.