10:16AM, Thursday 22 November 2018
Massive changes to the town centre will get underway next year after councillors voted through plans for the Landing.
Members of the Maidenhead Development Management Panel yesterday approved the construction of one roughly seven-storey office block and three residential blocks up to 16 storeys high, containing 344 homes.
The development, which is being managed by the HUB group, will be built on the land surrounded by Queen Street, Broadway and King Street, following demolition of existing buildings, despite council officers recommending it for refusal.
Cllr Claire Stretton (TBF, Boyn Hill) said the council’s head of planning, Jenifer Jackson, had suggested ahead of the Maidenhead Town Hall meeting that ‘we could, if we approve this application, be building the slums of the future’.
She added that council officers were ‘extremely concerned about the quality of life of people living in these apartments’.
Cllr Derek Sharp (Con, Furze Platt) said: “It is a nice production but it is too tall.
“I do not think this is what most of the residents of Maidenhead want.”
Both councillors voted against, while Cllr Maureen Hunt (Con, Hurley and Walthams) abstained. All other members approved it.
The scheme won praise from Cllr Richard Kellaway (Con, Bisham and Cookham), who said: “Don’t forget we are going tall in Maidenhead to protect the green belt.”
Remarking about opponents who pine for Maidenhead as it was in the 1950s, he said critics needed to ‘face the economic reality’ and added: “This scheme is really pretty good.”
Cllr Leo Walters (Con, Bray) followed suit and said: “I do not think this is so bad.
“We have got to move forward.”
Earlier, council leader Cllr Simon Dudley (Con, Riverside) said members had ‘the opportunity to take the town forward’ and added that work will begin ‘in early 2019’.
An outline application to build two buildings in Queen Street between six and 10 storeys of height for office and residential use was approved as part of the scheme.
An council application for a multi-storey car park in Vicus Way was delayed again after panel members complained they had not been able to adequately digest a report that had been put up just hours ahead of the meeting.
It was delayed at a previous panel because councillors believed they did not have sufficient information. It is set to return on December 17.
Plans for six blocks containing 46 two bedroom flats and 15 one bedroom flats at the site of Clean Linen Services in Furze Platt Road were approved and an application for flats in Grenfell Road was turned down.
Two detached homes planned for Hills Lane in Cookham were refused permission, while a change of use of land west of Coningsby Lane to joint agricultural and equestrian use was approved.
The installation of a replacement pole supporting antennas was also approved.
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Pursuer
18:06, 28 November 2018
We are often told that developments will include 'affordable housing' which despite developers undertakings which are not built because developers can't afford to build them as there would be no profit left. One point I have never understood is what is an 'affordable' house or home. Affordable is linked to the income of a buyer so really this term is worthless as any form of measure.
LW1476
15:03, 23 November 2018
at least something is happening rather than going back to the start again and more years of boarded up shops and nothing to attract people back into the town centre.
the_dave_thomas_1
20:08, 23 November 2018
What makes you think that building shiny new tower blocks will do anything to populate empty shops? Newsflash - lack of supply is not the problem! Totally unaffordable business rates, ridiculously high property prices giving a complete lack of incentive for monied landlords to populate empty units, Internet businesses headquartered in tax havens sucking the life out of every high street in Britain, crippling lack of insight and innovation from local or national government, these are the real problems. Build all the tower blocks you want... it will let RBWM Tories hit their targets and keep their precious funding from central govt, but it will do precisely fuck all to save this dying town.
Toffee
10:10, 23 November 2018
I honestly don't know what anyone expects here. It's the middle of town, so it won't be all detached houses for blatantly obvious reasons. Whether people think the design is right or not, the fact is, any town centre development will be a mixture of shops and commercial units, with flats above them. Whether this is the right answer or not, I've no idea. But it'd be pretty much impossible to avoid putting flats in there.
the_dave_thomas_1
20:08, 23 November 2018
It's pretty simple really, people expect something in keeping with the surrounding environment. Flats are not a problem, but this is massively too tall, the homes are tiny, and the provision of genuinely affordable housing is inadequate. Residents deserve so much better.
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Massive changes to the town centre will get underway next year after councillors voted through plans for the Landing.
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