Latest bid to put homes on The Crown site quashed

Another bid to build homes on The Crown pub has been quashed again – the latest of four failed bids to get either flats or houses there.

The site is in Wootton Way, Boyn Hill and comprises about 1,200sqm, including the vacant Crown pub – a two-storey red brick and slate tile Victorian property.

The long battle to put homes on The Crown pub site has been ongoing since 2019.

Originally, a bid was put in for 12 flats, which was refused by the council, taken to appeal, and then dismissed.

Scaling down from that proposal, another application was put in for 10 flats in 2021.

This fizzled out in January last year, with RBWM disposing of the application because there had been no recent correspondence from the agent.

Third was a plan for four semi-detached homes, sent to RBWM in March 2023. This was refused too – and has so far not been taken to appeal.

Finally, the latest application (24/00630/FULL), put forward in March this year, was refused as well. It was also a plan for four semi-detached homes.

The homes would have covered about 770sqm, and would have been built on the current parking area parallel to Maple Close on the other side.

Eight cars’ worth of parking for the new homes would have been marked towards the Norden Road end.

Included in the plans were four sets of outdoor amenity space behind the two semi-detached buildings, measuring between 60 to 91sqm backing onto Maple Close.

The two-storey homes would also have bedroom space in the lofts, covering a net area of 122sqm.

But Windsor and Maidenhead council’s planning team said there was ‘a lack of information’ on the new accesses planned on Wootton Way, as well as parking.

Officers were concerned this could ‘harm the safe and efficient operation of the surrounding highway’.

The applicant also failed to demonstrate any plans to off-set carbon emissions, nor plans to make a financial contribution towards carbon off-setting in lieu of this, which puts it in conflict with policies in the Borough Local Plan.

Officers could also not be sure, based on the information in their hands, that there would not be an adverse impact on biodiversity and protected species.

They also noted that the hardstanding planned for the parking would leave no space for greenery, which would make the proposal ‘out of character with its surroundings’.

In a separate application, a plan to put in eight parking spaces and 14 bike parking spaces was approved in early June.