Tadley's Reading Warehouses demolished to make way for retirement flats
Reading Warehouses in New Road, Tadley, has been demolished.
The building is making way for a development of 42 retirement flats, along with communal facilities, car parking and a small retail shop.
The electrical appliance superstore had been in Tadley since the late 1960s, but closed for good earlier this year.
The news was posted on the Spotted Tadley Facebook page, with local residents recalling their memories of the store.
Nigel Simmonds said: “So very sad to see it go.
“[I] worked there for 32 years, up to the final day, with so many good people there and made lifelong friends with some.
“It’s the end of an era.”
Hilary Jackson added: “Great shop, not just for the big stuff but smaller practical things.
“So many beds and white goods bought over the years, but also birthday presents and garden stuff. It was like a mini department store, so convenient.
“Won't see its like again.”
The Newbury Weekly News reported in 2018 that Reading Warehouses had entered into an agreement with McCarthy & Stone Retirement Lifestyles Ltd for the proposed redevelopment of the site.
McCarthy Stone then submitted plans for the ‘retirement living apartments’, which received the go ahead by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council in November 2019, but the application stalled after the company and council disagreed on the method of the provision of affordable homes.
The plans went to appeal, and in July last year the planning inspectorate gave the application the green light, subject to a cascade arrangement.
This arrangement means if on-site affordable housing can't be secured then a financial contribution will be provided.
McCarthy Stone Southern Division divisional managing director Shane Paull said at the time: “Our plans will help meet an acknowledged and growing need for this type of accommodation in the area, whilst ensuring the continuity of the long-established retail use on-site.”
Under the cascade arrangement, in the first instance, five apartments would be transferred to a registered provider for 60 per cent of open market value.
If there were to be no interest from a registered provider, then cascade position two – offering five discounted market units (DMU) to qualifying people with an additional £100,000 commuted sum for off-site provision – would be made available.
If there were no demand from qualifying people then the borough council would have a choice of two options.
Cascade position three sets out that the DMUs would be made available to the market with a commuted sum of £100,000, while cascade position four sets out that McCarthy Stone would pay an affordable housing contribution of up to £202,326 prior to occupation of the market units.
