Is office block answer to old cinema site?

Everyone seems to agree the demolition of ‘the cinema that never was’ is to be welcomed, and the proposed building looks quite pretty in the architect’s perspective, as it should.

But is it sensible planning to allow such a great increase in the footprint of a building in the flood plain, and one that blocks off three of the five arches of Chapel Arches, that were all running full bore in the 47 and the 53 floods?

This must raise the level of the next 50-year flood north of the Bath Road, and remember that the Jubilee River will now not take its design load, and global warming means more severe storms and flooding.

It also raises a legal Thames navigation problem. The water that flows in the York Stream, when it is allowed to flow by the Environment  gency, is Thames Water.

It has been established that wherever Thames water flows there is a public right of navigation, and this includes going over private land in time of floods.

Has the Royal Borough the right to sell land for building, or indeed to approve such plans, if it is land over which the Thames sometimes flows, without ensuring such development will not hinder navigation?

If it has such a right, why does it not sell its Thames eyots to Taplow Paper Recycling Works, or for development as offices, in order to reduce our council tax? And why should this new building at the entrance to a brick build conservation area be in Portland Stone and be built from the back of the pavement, when buildings either side are set back?

It really is a false economy of the council to refuse to employ anyone qualified to design  and build a building!

MICHAEL BAYLEY
Westmorland Road
Maidenhead