Plans unveiled for scaled-down housing project at Stoke Wharf

Plans for a scaled-down housing development by the Grand Union Canal in Slough have been unveiled to councillors. 

The major housing project at Stoke Wharf has been beset by delays since proposals were first revealed in 2020. 

Slough Borough Council purchased the site for £1.8million back in 2017 and embarked on a joint venture alongside the Canal and River Trust and Morgan Sindall to build 312 homes.

Planning permission was secured in 2023, but the council backed out of the proposals due to its worsening financial position.

Since then, a deal has been agreed to sell the land to Bellway Homes and the developer is now in discussions with the council over a smaller scale 170-home development.

Plans are yet to be submitted for the new scheme, but developers have outlined a project focused on building family homes with three and four-bedroom properties.

A pre-application presentation, which went before councillors at a meeting on Wednesday, July 30, said that affordable housing is expected to reach Slough Borough Council’s target of 30 per cent but developers are still negotiating with planning officers.

The meeting heard the vision for the site is to ‘reimagine the site as a family-oriented residential quarter.’

Future residents of Stoke Wharf will have one space of allocated parking for each home, but Councillor Subhash Mohindra (Con, Upton) asked if more visitor parking should be explored for the plans.

Alex Hales, planning manager with Bellway Homes, said: “Visitors will come to the site; people will have family and friends over. The parking allocation that you saw had provision for some visitor parking spaces. 

“We are trying to design the scheme in a way that discourages unauthorised parking. People will be encouraged to use alternative means of travel to get there.”

 There are no formal plans for any commercial or retail aspects on the site. 

 Mr Hales added: “That is something we thought about long and hard. We don’t build commercial properties. 

“We want to make this a dynamic place by encouraging people to come through and visit the natural environment, the canal and the parks, that is our aim.” 

Councillors heard the planning application should be formally submitted later this year, in early autumn.

Councillor Dhruv Tomar, the chair of the planning committee, asked how long the development would take and how it will impact the existing residents and wildlife near Stoke Wharf.

Mr Hales said: “[This is] an incredibly constrained site, that will inevitably add to the challenges that need to be overcome over the way.

“As for the swans, we’re not going to do anything to the canal itself. That’s going to stay there, we hope. There will be a biodiversity net gain requirement for these applications so we’re going to look very carefully at the landscaping” 

A consultation with local residents and ward councillors will be underway once the planning application is submitted.