Latest steps in Aldermaston Court housing scheme

Historic mansion could be converted into apartments

DEVELOPERS are paving the way to convert the historic Aldermaston Court and parts of its surrounding estate into housing.

Dovecrag Ltd is seeking to obtain full planning permission and listed building consent to convert the Grade-II listed manor house and lodge into 30 apartments.

The developer is also proposing to build up to 260 homes on the former cricket pitch north of the mansion and to remove the modern extensions to the manor house.

The proposals include the demolition of the large office buildings constructed by cement manufacturer Blue Circle – Oxford House and Portland House – in order to return the gardens and grounds to their former glory.

The manor house was used as a hotel and conference centre until it entered administration in 2012.

Praxis Holdings, which acquired the manor park and 140-acre estate for £4.7m in 2014, says it explored other uses including keeping it as a hotel, and using it as a care or education facility.

Dovecrag has now submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the site with West Berkshire Council’s planning department.

An EIA is a process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the likely significant environmental effects arising from a development.

Dovecrag said it had decided to undertake the EIA despite the council saying that one was not necessary.

The report says the proposed works to the parkland are likely to have “significant beneficial effects on the registered park”.

This, it says, is because key landscape features will be retained and protected.

It continues that the design will focus on the minimisation to the loss of habitats wherever possible.

Where a loss is unavoidable, new habitats will be created.

Aldermaston Court is currently on the English Heritage ‘at risk’ register, with its condition noted as ‘generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems’.

Dovecrag said that any impact on the heritage will be encompassed in the planning design.

In conclusion, the report said there will be an increase in traffic as a result of the development but it argues it would be unlikely to have a significant impact on villagers or the Atomic Weapons Establishment.

Aldermaston lies within a detailed emergency planning zone (DEPZ), where members of the public would be required to take shelter to protect themselves from the impact of a radiation emergency.

The developer said that the DEPZ can be addressed through an onsite estate manager acting as a link between residents and AWE.

Praxis representatives provided an update to residents at an Aldermaston Parish Council meeting on Tuesday.

Parish council chairman David Shirt said that Praxis’s plans had not changed significantly since a public consultation this year.

Representatives also said that a planning application was expected to be submitted in March 2016 and that another exhibition was likely to be held in February.

Mr Shirt said that the parish council would hold a public meeting once the plans had been submitted, but added: “I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of opposition.”

Mr Shirt added that if the plans were for just converting the manor house there would be no problems, but the hundreds of homes would more than double the size of the village and have a significant impact on it.

Previous proposals to develop part of Aldermaston Manor to include 38 residential apartments were rejected by the district council and thrown out by a the Government planning inspector in 2004.

West Berkshire Council is expected to decide on the EIA by Friday, January 8.