Another attempt to get office block turned into 40 flats

Plans have resurfaced for a change of use from an office block into flats in Marlow Road.

Thames House, at number 17, was built in 1998 and was previously used as the Maidenhead headquarters for inVentiv Health, a US-based company in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Proposals to convert the office building into 40 flats were originally put forward in 2021.

The plans were approved – but the conversion did not take place within the three-year time limit.

In 2023, residents also petitioned against plans for an additional 33 flats on top of the original 40 and the extension was ultimately refused.

Then in August this year, the Royal Borough refused the new prior approval application for 40 flats, citing concerns over internal floor space.

Applications like these are bound by national guidance, and RBWM’s planning team cast doubt on the measurements and whether the flats were large enough within these rules.

They looked at the floor plans and noted double beds would be put in all the units, meaning some of the flats could potentially house more people than suggested in the proposals.

According to the rules, these flats would therefore not be big enough for the number of people presumed to live in them.

In this latest application (logged at the end of October), applicants MHA (MacIntyre Hudson LLP) have made another attempt to get the conversion approved, laying out the flat sizes per the number of people.

Within their cover latter, the applicant notes that Planning found the proposals 'broadly acceptable' but refused their scheme due to ‘drawing pack discrepancies.'

Those new drawings and the schedule now more clearly spell out, flat by flat, the floor area and the assumed occupancy.

See all documents with reference 25/02838 in RBWM's online planning portal.