There is still no decision on whether the Kennet Shopping centre will get bulldozed and remade into a new quarter for Newbury.
Attempts to approve the 427 flat scheme were filibustered out at a four-and-a-half hour meeting of West Berkshire Council’s district planning committee last night (Wednesday).
That means it was ‘talked’ out of the time allowed by council standing orders, so the meeting which started at 6pm was guillotined at 10.30pm.
So, unless the developer Lochailort decides to appeal to the planning inspector, the matter will have to go back to another district planning committee.
The scale of the build, and lack of affordable housing included in it, with the loss of parking led the objections aired at the meeting.
Councillors did manage to vote on one proposal – to reject the officers’ recommendation to approve the £150m Eagle Quarter scheme.
But they were split down the middle on that with five voting for and five against with one abstainer.
The chairman, Denise Gaines (Lib Dem, Hungerford and Kintbury), then used her casting vote to defeat that proposal.
Then they voted 6:5 against officers’ recommendations to approve, as the abstainer voted against.
Then they ran out of time before voting on whether to accept the proposals again with conditions.
“We need to look forward and not sit with one foot in the past. It’s a mess,” said Richard Somner (Con, Tilehurst South and Holybrook), more or less summing up the views of those in favour of the scheme.
This is the second four-hour meeting in weeks on the issue, the previous planning committee having kicked the responsibility for making a decision to the district planning committee last night.
There was another attempt to kick it down the road again to full council, but this was not allowed under council rules.
If they do agree to it, either at another meeting, or the council loses an appeal by the developer, then Newbury can look forward to being a building site for the next three-and-a-half years.
The 427 new flats will go up – all as buy to rents – as the scheme is considered ‘unviable’ for the usual percentage of affordable housing required by the council’s own policy.
“Given the significant need in West Berkshire for affordable housing, I see this as a gross failure of this development and one that should be given great rather than significant weight in the planning balance,” said Louise Sturgess (Lib Dem, Newbury Central).
“We haven’t spoken to anyone who is against the redevelopment of the Kennet Centre in principle, and we all want to see such an important site revitalised.
“However, development should not come at the expense of real and significant harm to the Newbury Town Centre Conservation Area and its 30 listed buildings, the many in West Berkshire in desperate need of affordable housing, deterioration in our town centre car parking arrangements.”
She was joined in her objection by fellow Newbury Central councillor Martin Colston.
“I would contend strongly that this is brutal, like a section of industrial city has been unceremoniously plonked into the heart of a small market town,” he said.
“This unarguably and dramatically changes the character of the town centre.”
Council officers said the proposal could get away with not having affordable housing because the scheme was not financially viable with it, and therefore was exempt from its own policy for developments to include them.
The scheme also saw concerns over a shortfall in parking. In essence, the Kennet Shopping centre car park would be used for residents of the new build, meaning that weekend traffic would make the car park overflow.
So the council officers and the developers said they’d hacked a deal to improve signage and the access to the Market Street station car park, which is mostly empty, so that can be used in case of overflow.
The developers did their bit to convince the committee that the Kennet Shopping centre was a “failing and unsustainable shopping centre”.
Their schtick is to “rejuvenate and regenerate” with the “removal of an eyesore” which will “link the town centre to the station with oven ready retail units”.
They say the centre has rising vacancy rates. Employment on the site has dropped by 47 per cent, from 349 full-time staff in 2012 to 185 in 2020.
They claim the development is expected to create 134 full-time jobs and 427 flats are expected to generate £7.5m for the local economy.
The council’s planning officers recommended the scheme was approved, on planning balance which shows benefit to the town outweighs the visual impact it will have.
“It presents an existential threat to the character of the town,” said Andy Moore, mayor of Newbury.
“If there is not affordable housing included in this proposal then it is the wrong proposal. If we had our time again we wouldn’t have the Kennet Centre.”
The Newbury Society has consistently opposed the plans on the basis of the scale and mass of the proposal which would affect the character of Newbury with five- to six-storey height blocks dwarfing the existing heights of Newbury which are of two to three storeys.
Developer Lochailort said: “We are disappointed that a decision was not made last night and we are reflecting on the content of the meeting and are considering our options at present.”