Plan for 'cramped' eight homes on St Mark's Road refused

Plans for eight houses and flats on St Mark’s Road have been turned down by the council.

Harlequin New Homes (Maidenhead 51) Limited wanted to demolish a building at 51 St Mark’s Road and put in a set of flats and houses.

The two-storey building was built in the 1950s and was owned by a builder, J&M Halfacre, from 1956 until it was sold in January 2023. It was a workshop and office.

Plans included a three-bedroom home, four two-bedroom houses, two two-bed flats and a one-bed flat.

The application proposes an alternative development of the site following the grant of Prior Approval for the conversion of the existing building into one home.

There are ‘merits’ of this development compared to the fallback position, argued representatives DHA Planning

The proposed development would ‘make a more efficient use of land’ and would offer an ‘attractive frontage’ on St Mark’s.

It would also bring in CIL money (Community Infrastructure Levy) and other developer contributions, they said.

Furthermore, an application for full planning permission in August for a similar development was refused (ref 23/02151/FULL).

The proposal had a ‘cramped nature’ and its scale and overall design would be ‘out of keeping’ with the area and would harm its visual character, officers wrote.

It would be an ‘overdevelopment’ of the site that ‘fails to make a positive contribution’ to the character of the area.

The buildings would also have provided an unsatisfactory standard of living, with overlooking and not enough private outdoor amenity space.

RBWM also had concerns over the applicants failing to demonstrate a biodiversity net gain or any carbon footprint off-setting.

For this new proposal, the applicant sought to reconfigure the site to address the concerns about the ‘general rhythm’ of the site and its relationship with adjacent development.

Some tweaks were made to the garden and flats arrangements.

Although many of the above criticisms were not repeated in this latter council refusal, Harlequin New Homes was unable to shake concerns over scale and the homes’ negative impact on the character of the area.

See all plans with reference 23/03188/FULL in RBWM’s online planning portal.