Plans have been approved that will see a large office block in Wokingham Without converted into more than 100 flats.
Part of the Pinewood Campus in Wokingham will have a change in use after serving as the offices for pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.
Plans submitted to Wokingham Borough Council by agents for the owners, Legal and General Assurance (Pensions Management) Ltd, show designs for 109 apartments.
No building work will be done to the outside the building in the process of converting the block to flats.
These would be a mixture of studios, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments.
At least 100 car spaces will also be provided. There are already cycle storage spaces for office workers, of which there will be one per resident.
The site is located to south east of Wokingham on Nine Mile Ride, and adjacent to Pinewood Leisure centre.
The site has limited public transport access, with the nearest bus stop located 320 metres east of the site. The closest railway station is Crowthorne.
The location in Wokingham Without covers land between Bracknell and Wokingham, and parts of Crowthorne.
A ward member for Wokingham Without, where the site is located, raised objections to the plans.
Councillor Seona Turtle said that she thought the development ‘should be considered unacceptable’ because it is ‘clearly in the countryside’.
Councillor Turtle referenced the South Wokingham SDL plan – a major 2,500 home development for the part of the borough – to argue that buildings like Pinewood Campus should be protected.
She requested that any other building on the site would be protected from future changes of use to housing.
Wokingham Without Parish Council did not raise a formal objection, but expressed some ‘reservations’ with the plans.
The authority argued that the site is in a designated countryside location, and that the area had already experienced an increase in housing.
It also argued that there is a lack of supporting infrastructure in the area to cope with growing populations – such shops, health services and schools.
Other concerns were raised over the increase in traffic that it would cause, with hundreds of vehicles on the roads surrounding the site.
Despite this, Wokingham Borough Council granted ‘prior approval’ to the plans on October 10 for the change of use of the building.
More details will be supplied at a later date by the applicant regarding designs and time scale.
