Councillors vote in favour of major Windsor town centre development

Councillors have welcomed a major development which would see Windsor town centre regenerated to include a host of new features such as a cinema.

At Wednesday night’s Windsor and Ascot Development Management Committee meeting, councillors praised the plans to transform the area, stating that parts of the town were currently a ‘dead space’ and ‘a ghost town’.

The plans by applicant UREF LP sought permission for the partial re-development of Windsor Yards King Edward Court to make improvements and create new facilities.

The development is split into five key areas with the plans for the southern development site, which covers the existing Windsor Yards building and the area between Bridgewater Way, Peascod Street and Charles Street, seeking to demolish the existing building to provide an office building and an apart-hotel building with 103 rooms.

A four-screen boutique cinema with a capacity of 307 seats is planned or the eastern development site, alongside the redevelopment of 113-115 Peascod Street to create eight residential units.

At the Travelodge site, a single-storey extension to deliver an additional 22 rooms and to extend the existing hotel foyer at ground floor level is being proposed.

There are also plans to add two new decks to the multi-storey car park.

Several councillors praised elements of the plans including the new cinema – a feature which Cllr Amy Tisi (Lib Dem, Clewer East) and Cllr Carole Da Costa (WWRA, Clewer and Dedworth East) stated that residents have wanted in the town for many years.

Cllr Tisi said: “There’s no denying that that end of the town’s been in decline – Fenwicks, Next, Lakeland, they all went [and] nothing’s gone back in. There’s been talk of a cinema down there for years, but nothing’s happened.”

She added: “The things that are being brought in, I do agree will make that area feel safer. There will be more people around.

“It’s absolutely dead of an evening, early evening, once the shops are shut nothing happens and if you’re a woman on your own walking down from the station, it’s deserted, and I think things like the cinema, having a restaurant at that end will help to bring more people in.”

Concerns over the development plans were also raised at the meeting, including the height of the proposed office building and Travelodge extension, introducing two six-storey elements to the town landscape.

Cllr Carole Da Costa said she was concerned that accepting the development would set a precedent which would see a ‘creeping effect’ of building heights slowly increasing.

Officers at the meeting stated that the height has been recognised as a harm, albeit mitigated ‘to a certain degree’ in terms of design considerations and explained that each application is judged on its merits and an application like this ‘is not going to be something that’s going to come forward elsewhere which would justify additional height elsewhere’.

The committee voted in favour of the officer’s recommendation to authorise the head of planning to grant planning permission.