Kennet Shopping centre redevelopment: Eagle Quarter multi-storey plans appeal date set for next month
A date has been set for the appeal into the rejected Eagle Quarter plans for Newbury.
That’s the eight-storey development of 427 buy to rent flats at the Kennet Shopping centre site.
The planning hearing is due to start at 10am on Tuesday, June 3, at the West Berkshire Council offices in Market Street.
The plans for the Eagle Quarter II development were turned down by West Berkshire Council in January after stiff opposition from many on the council and conservationists, who felt the proposal would ruin the character of Newbury.
One councillor went on to say they did not want Newbury turned into another Reading or Basingstoke.
Attempts to approve the 427-flat scheme had already been filibustered out at a four-and-a-half hour meeting of the planning committee the November before.
The developer Lochailort lodged an appeal almost immediately after the January meeting.
The Newbury Society and Newbury Town Council will be joining West Berkshire Council to oppose the development at the appeal hearing.
The appeal is expected to last the whole of that week.
The appeal also runs alongside another proposed development on the Kennet Shopping centre site by Lochailort.
This proposal is for a new residential quarter of Newbury based on mews houses, and does away completely with any shopping.
The interesting thing to watch is if the planning appeal sides with the developer on the first, perhaps less popular, proposal with the Government’s new housing directive saying councils should allow brownfield housing sites.
The buy to rent aspect of the multi-storey Eagle Quarter gets it out of jail for the lack of affordable housing policy. The council wants all developments to have this.
The Old Town proposal has no affordable housing in it as Lochailort says that is unviable.
