Retirement flats plan on store site

42 apartments and retail unit on Reading Warehouses land

TADLEY’S Reading Warehouses store could be demolished to make way for 42 retirement flats.

An application to built 42 apartments and a retail store with a further five flats above it has been submitted to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council for the New Road site.

McCarthy and Stone Retirement Lifestyles Ltd has submitted the plan for the retirement apartments with communal landscaping and car parking following a public consultation with residents in August.

The electrical appliance superstore has been in Tadley since the late 1960s.

Reading Warehouses spokes-man David Yelland said: “Reading Warehouses has entered into an agreement with McCarthy & Stone Retirement Lifestyles Ltd (MSRL) for the proposed redevelopment of the Reading Warehouses site at 42-48 New Road, Tadley.

“Reading Warehouses will no longer be trading from this site once the sale is completed with MSRL.”

The design and access statement said: “The site is currently occupied by Reading Warehouses and a disused residential building.

“It would be beneficial to the surrounding community that the proposed site is regenerated, providing much-needed independent accommodation for the ageing population, and creating a dynamic re-use of the site by including a local class A retail use (A1) and private residential apartments.”

When the plans were first made public, there were mixed responses to the proposals.

Abi Lewis wrote on Facebook: “Just what we need... when it’s already impossible to get a doctors appointment for the people already here if you keep building homes/accommodation we also need to have funding to cope with the extra people.”

Alistar Churchill commented on the demolition of Reading Warehouse and wrote: “It is old, but a quality business that will be missed.

“Tadley has lost its shops, all we have left now are charity shops and kebabs.

“I’m not counting Sainsbury’s.”

The application is with the borough council planning department with the determination deadline set for January 28.