Fifty-four flats in protected business park turned down

A plan for 54 flats in a Maidenhead business park were refused by the council this week – despite publicly voiced concerns that applications of this type may be impossible to prevent.

In April, developer Mountley Ltd put in an application to change an office building in Vanwall Business Park, known as the Id building, into these flats.

This is the same business park as Mattel House, where applicants won permission on appeal to build 91 flats.

Councillors looking at the Mattel application (among others) have several times decried the dwindling amount of office space in Maidenhead.

Nonetheless, developers have the right to change a site from commercial use to residential use via a fast-track check-list procedure, in some circumstances.

Known as the ‘prior approval’ process, this is a national policy – and developers with this avenue have what is called ‘permitted development rights’ (PDR).

Effectively a checklist of requirements, if the developer meets these, it would be permitted to convert office space to flats regardless of whether this fits with RBWM’s wider aims.

Between 2013 and 2022, about 32,000sqm of office floorspace (equivalent to about 2,300 jobs) was lost through permitted development rights across the borough.

Vanwall Business Park is defined as a protected employment site in the Borough Local Plan, but this does not actually protect its buildings from this fate.

Heeding warnings from its own officers, RBWM’s cabinet member for planning announced in March that the council was taking steps to prevent unwanted loss of office space.

The Royal Borough has been looking to put in ‘Article 4’ protections, which remove troublesome PDR for certain named sites.

The plan was to include Vanwall Business Park in this set.

In the meantime, office space in Maidenhead is vulnerable to these conversions, should developers be able to meet nationally defined constraints and requirements.

However, the developer did not meet these requirements in this particular application.

According to planning officers, several of the proposed flats would be too small to comply with nationally set space standards.

Another falling point was regarding the strict rules around PDR, which covers only internal works needed for the conversion, not external additions. But the plans included the construction of new bin and cycle storage buildings – which fall outside the scope of this type of application. These structures require full planning permission.

Moreover, this appears to be a potential Catch 22 for the developer, as RBWM adds: “Bin and cycle storage facilities are required in order to demonstrate that the development would be adequately serviced ... and to ensure [its] sustainability.”

To see all documents related to this application, enter reference 24/00970/CLAMA into Windsor and Maidenhead council’s planning portal.