Block of flats reaching nine storeys in Slough blocked by councillors

Councillors have blocked plans for a block of flats reaching up to nine storeys in Slough – despite being opposite the Horlicks Quarter development, almost double in height. 

The vacant Stoke Gardens site was used for car servicing, repairs and tyre fitting, and an existing building would have been demolished to accommodate Ravinder Laly’s proposal for 34 flats.

Designs showed the building would have ranged between six and nine storeys and, according to planning officers, comprised seven two-bedroom homes and 27 single rooms.

There was 60 per cent affordable housing, equating to roughly 21 units.

Planning officers said the proposed scheme failed to provide ‘sufficient defensible space and separation’ to the ground-floor windows of habitable rooms.

“This would result in poor levels of privacy and put residents at risk of crime and antisocial behaviour,” said the planning report.

Ground floor windows were close to boundary fencing, providing a poor outlook, and the proposal also failed to demonstrate that rooms would receive sufficient daylight.

There was cycle parking, but no car parking was proposed as part of this scheme.

This would contribute to Slough's climate change strategy vision by reducing CO2 emissions, said planning agent Ian Donohue from Southern Planning Practice at a planning committee on Wednesday, February 26. 

“It's my opinion that the concerns raised…are not fundamental to the development proposed and could be addressed through amendments,” Mr Donohue added.

“What I found a bit frustrating for myself and the applicant is that officers are not prepared to discuss or accept amendments to the scheme.

“Negotiations on the scheme would be a common-sense approach.”

No councillors chose to speak on the agenda item, let alone raise questions, and voted unanimously in favour of the officer’s recommendations to reject the application.

Among the ten reasons for refusal given by the planning officer were the ‘partial loss of an existing business area to a non-employment generating use’ for a ‘piecemeal development’.

“[It] would potentially sterilise future development of neighbouring land,” added the report.

Mr Donohue said the area’s character has seen ‘fundamental change’ since the redevelopment of the Horlicks Quarter.

“The scheme will provide for the redevelopment of a brownfield site,” he added.

“The Horlicks site is considerably higher at 17 stories, such that the development would not be out of character with the area.”

Officers said the reasons for refusal were ‘quite fundamental’ and no amendments would be ‘acceptable to provide an acceptable scheme’.

The applicant didn’t undertake pre-application discussions, which Slough Borough Council said was ‘a necessary part’ of the development process and ‘the way we work’.