Wokingham politicians have called for a prominent shop site in the town centre to be used to provide additional council homes for the local community.
The former Waitrose and Marks and Spencer’s Food Hall at 28-38 Peach Street was purchased by Wokingham Borough Council in 2017 for £1.9M and is currently used as a charity shop.
The plot forms a fourth edge to Wokingham’s ‘piazza’ – Peach Place – and according to officers, that was part of the rationale for acquiring it when the square was being developed.
At a meeting of the council’s Community and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee, on Monday, June 29, Labour Councillor Marie-Louise Weighill called for the possibility of high-quality council-owned homes to be built on the site of the former Waitrose and M&S.
Ms Weighill said the council should “think about using our community assets to build for the community”.
“If we sell and let the market decide, we know we’re just going to end up getting luxury flats – that’s the thing that’s going to get the most money.”
The council leader Stephen Conway seemed to agree with her, noting that Andy Burnham is also passionate about council houses.
He said: “Obviously we know that the next Prime Minister is very keen to highlight the importance of council housing – the expansion of council housing, and clearly one of the things that makes that difficult is lack of money.
Cllr Weighill added: “You have to make a choice about what’s going to drive your decisions: are we going to be driven by immediate commercial gain or are we going to be driven by the ambition to provide more council housing.”
The long, thin shop in the conservation area traded as Wokingham’s Waitrose from January 1970 until October 1996 then was subsequently a M&S Food hall until the council bought it in 2017, and is currently occupied on the ground floor by the Forces Support charity.
The unit was built in the 1960’s and includes 25,000 square feet over 2 floors, with c. 14,000 square feet at ground floor level.
The first floor cannot be currently used because it was built using unsafe ‘bubbly concrete’ or RAAC, so any long-term use of the building requires demolition and re-building.
Until recently, the council was considering the site as a possible position for re-locating its own HQ, but discounted that possibility last week in favour of retaining its current base in Shute End for at least 10 years.
Conservative councillor Pauline Jorgensen said: “What I want to do is make the best answer for our residents both in terms of something that’s usable and an asset to Wokingham Town Centre but also something that provides things like affordable housing and provides a good revenue for the council.
“The option I can’t actually see here is the option of knock it down, develop it, and then sell it, to take any profit from the development.”
Officer Sarah Morgan presented the council with seven options going forward including selling the building as it is, exploring the market for potential buyers and ideas for having the council developing the site.
She said: “There are risks associated with a freehold sale and those are particularly summarised as a loss of control.
“Once that asset is sold, the only real control the council would have is through the planning process.
“If we keep it, we also take on the risk of holding it, and that’s part of the development process, so it’s a really finely balanced piece.
There was no vote on a particular option, and the officers agreed to come back to the committee having explored the possibilities in more detail, including an additional suggestion by Pauline Jorgensen of the council developing the building and then selling it, to keep temporary control and take any profit from the development.
Categories: Economic development
