Ascot centre near High Street could see 137 new homes

A plan for nearly 140 homes along with community space close to Ascot High Street has been submitted to the Royal Borough council.

London Square & Ascot Central Car Park Ltd is seeking permission for new office, commercial and retail space and 137 new homes – together with a community space and public parkland.

The residences will be in the form of apartments above the commercial buildings and smaller apartment buildings further within the site adjacent to terraced housing.

There would be 32 one-bed flats, 69 two-bed flats, two two-bedroom duplexes and 34 four-bedroom houses.

This is in addition to 3,261sqm commercial and community floorspace.

The application site comprises the western part of AL16 of the adopted Borough Local Plan (BLP), which specifies ‘a mixed use development providing approximately 300 residential units’.

The area was taken off the greenbelt with the adoption of the BLP.

Proposals by London Square include a pop-up market, ground floor accommodation for retail or food and drink premises with apartments above, ‘community cultural space’ and children’s play area.

There will be townhouses and mews houses, private communal gardens for the mews houses, a community orchard and spaces for ‘natural play’.

Pedestrians and cyclists will have a route between Station Hill and the High Street and future pedestrian and cycle connections to the development site to the east.

Plans also include maintaining access to Royal Ascot Tennis Club and the Ascot Wood homes. Car access into the development will be from Station Hill.

The proposals will create ‘an exciting new character area of Ascot Centre that will provide a holistic and sustainable living / working / resting / playful set of spaces’, London Square claims.

The site is allocated for development among other parts of Ascot, ‘with the main aim of rejuvenating Ascot’ and to ‘repair the High Street.’

However, would-be neighbours have already launched objections, saying the development will ‘ruin quality of life’ and ‘kill the character of the town’, as it is ‘huge in comparison to the current size of Ascot centre’.

The company has been speaking to the council during its pre-application process and has ‘worked very hard’ to take feedback into
account, says the submitted planning statement.

London Square wrote that it has also used consultation
responses to inform its plans, including responses to the Ascot, Sunninghill and Sunningdale Neighbourhood Plan.

To see all documents relating to this application, enter reference 22/01971/FULL into the Royal Borough’s planning portal.