Affordable housing justification a no-go for Shanly flats refusal, council agrees

The council has decided it cannot justify refusing permission for 49 Shanly Homes flats on the site of Maidenhead Spiritualist Church on the grounds that it will offer no affordable housing.

The application to demolish the church and start on the flats was submitted in November 2020.

Councillors refused the application in July last year, largely on the basis of the ‘scandalous’ lack of affordable housing.

In doing so, they diverged from the recommendations of officers of Windsor and Maidenhead council.

An appeal got underway in March, with Shanly offering a viability report to show that it couldn’t deliver affordable housing without taking too much of a knock to its finances.

At the meeting on Wednesday, head of planning Adrien Waite stressed that if affordable housing is always insisted upon, financial deficits would be so great for developers that some applications would simply not come forward at all.

“It’s better to have development, and the benefits of development, than no development – which is the scenario you get when you blindly insist on affordable housing,” he said.

Councillor Maureen Hunt (Con, Hurley and Walthams) said that previously, councillors ‘felt we had to make it known we were not happy with the situation’ but that now, things are different.

There were concerns – echoed by multiple panel members – about the costs incurred to the council by incorrectly going ahead with appeal on ‘unreasonable’ grounds.

“As much as we'd like to say no, no, no, there's a very good chance [Shanly] will go for costs,” Cllr Hunt said.

“With a heavy heart, I have to put forward for the officer's recommendation.”

In the end, the panel voted in favour of the officer recommendation to partially change course.

Specifically, officers recommended the council officially state that it will now only be pursuing the appeal on the two other grounds for objection – both environmental concerns.

To view all documents relating to the application, see reference 20/03149/OUT in the Windsor and Maidenhead council’s planning portal.

A hearing on the appeal is scheduled for August 1.