Plan for flats on former NWN site set to be refused

Newspaper Holdings Ltd has applied to replace offices with apartments

PLANS to develop the old Newbury Weekly News site look set to be refused.

Newspaper House Holdings Ltd has applied to demolish and replace Newspaper House and units Q1 to Q6 in Faraday Road with 81 apartments.

Another application for 72 flats and office accommodation has also been submitted.

However, the council said that the proposed residential development was not considered acceptable – despite the site lying opposite the Faraday Road football ground, which the council wants to turn into flats.

Newspaper House Holdings Ltd was formed by former NWN chairman Jeremy Willis after the 152-year-old paper was bought by a joint venture company Newbury News and Media Ltd last May.

The joint venture was between Edward Iliffe and publisher Peter Fowler and it has no connection to Newspaper House Holdings Ltd.

Council officers have recommended that the schemes be refused at a western area planning committee meeting next Wednesday.

The council said that the main constraint of the site was that it lies within the highest flood risk zone.

The council said: “The principle of the proposed office development is acceptable where the site is located in an area identified for regeneration including offices.

“The principle of the proposed residential development is not considered acceptable.

“Taking this application on its own merits the residential development fails the flooding sequential test where it is located in higher risk flood zone 3 and there are other suitable alternative available sites for housing development at lower risk of flooding.”

The council said Newspaper House Holdings had not conducted a thorough search for land with the lowest risk of flooding elsewhere in the district, known as a sequential test, and that there are reasonably available sites appropriate for the housing development in areas of lower risk of flooding.

“As such the principle of housing in this location is not considered acceptable and this constitutes a reason for refusal.”

The council said that the search area to fulfill the sequential test was not agreed with in advance and the company chose to focus on Newbury, Thatcham and the Eastern Urban Area.

“The applicant’s justification of this was that it was due to the proposed development being high-density residential development,” the council said.

The local authority has a long-held ambition to redevelop the London Road Industrial Estate, but has faced a series of setbacks and costly legal challenges.

Newspaper House Holdings chairman Mr Willis said: “This has cost us £130,000 more because we have been given conflicting information by the council all the way through.

“The first set of sequential testing was approved.

“I believe that the council have been obstructive and have delayed the potential build of this because they are waiting to see what happens with the rest of Faraday Road.”

The council added that the development was very high-density at approximately 118 dwellings per hectare.

A total shortfall of 39 car parking spaces was accepted by the highways department.

Director at planning agency ProVision Steven Smallman said: “I was bitterly disappointed to learn that the planning officer is recommending that our planning application should be refused.

“The Environment Agency raises no objection to the latest proposal.

“We have been working with the council since 2016 to produce a scheme that the planning officer now agrees is acceptable in all respects, save for the sequential test issue.

“If planning permission were now to be refused by the council, it would only serve to further delay and frustrate the redevelopment of this vacant brown field site, situated in a highly sustainable location on the edge of the town centre and which has the potential to provide much-needed housing and modern workspaces, as well as kick starting the long overdue regeneration of this area.”

The plans, which have received no objections, will go before councillors on the western area planning committee on Wednesday, February 5.