A decision has been made on a project to replace offices with 570 apartments near a Tesco superstore and Reading town centre.
Napier Court is a collection of three offices situated directly opposite Kings Meadow.
The owners, Peveril Securities, applied to replace them with six apartment blocks totalling 11 storeys.
The site is in Napier Road, which is within walking distance of the train station, with Tesco Extra located at the end of it.
The project was submitted to Reading Borough Council in 2024.
But after assessing it, principal planning officer Matt Burns recommended that it be rejected, in part because no affordable housing was offered.
A verdict on the project was given at a planning applications committee yesterday (Wednesday, April 29).
Councillor Josh Williams (Green, Park) was conflicted, as he praised the attractive design and mix of flat sizes, providing 211 one-beds, 305 two-beds and 54 three-beds.
He said: “The affordable housing is unacceptable at zero.”
Cllr James Moore (Liberal Democrats, Tilehurst) said: “Given this application was first submitted over two years ago, and they got so much right on this application, it’s just so disappointing they got so much wrong after taking two years to get to this point.
“I just hope we get something better for this brownfield site because it sitting empty doesn’t really help anyone.”
Days before the meeting, Peveril Securities agreed to pay the council hundreds of thousands of pounds in developer contributions.
This included £500,000 for public realm improvements, £492,480 for health facilities, and £20,000 for tree planting at Kings Meadow.
Micky Leng, the lead councillor for planning, was unimpressed when councillors went on a site visit to help them determine the application.
He said: “I hope that something can carry on, and they do come back.
“I actually quite like it, I like the way it looks, I always say that, but I do, it’s in the Local Plan, a great place to live right above the river, a prime location.
“Then there’s the body language of the developer and the site itself.
“On the site visit, it was unkept, it had been broken into, there was still the old bins there, there was litter, there was graffiti, and there was no boarding up.
“It doesn’t show a commitment to the town.”
Cllr Leng (Labour, Whitley) went on to slam the lack of affordable housing, saying: “No affordable, no development.”
He also mentioned East Reading Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), a failed project to create a new route between Thames Valley Park in Earley and Vastern Road, which would have utilised Napier Road.
Mr Burns judged the project should be rejected as it would compromise a future MRT scheme.
Cllr Leng said: “It’s not just some pie in the sky, with devolution happening, and the strategic authorities, enabling councils to work together and produce and finally enable these major infrastructure projects.
“We’re looking at a decision that could, in 10 to 15 years, see people look back and say, ‘why did they surrender that strip of land?’ I don’t want to be on a committee that does that.”
He then made the revelation that a future MRT could be used by cars.
The scheme devised in 2016-2017 was for public transport and active travel only.
Councillors unanimously refused the 570 flats at the meeting.
