Plan to add flats to shop building in Woodley re-emerges

The Woodley Library Parade is a two-storey building that currently contains shops on the ground floor and offices on the first floor.

A previous plan to add floors and extend the Woodley Library Parade to provide 16 flats was rejected over concerns that new occupants would be able to look into neighbours properties.

Now a fresh plan for the building has emerged.

This time, the developers have reduced the amount of flats proposed from 16 to 14, split into five two-bed and nine one-bed flats.

There would be 10 car parking spaces for future occupants located within a covered car park, and 17 cycle spaces.

READ MORE: Plan to add flats to shops and offices in the heart of Woodley refused

The previous plan was rejected over concerns the proposed upper floors would create a ‘wind tunnel’ effect alongside the existing buildings, and that views from the proposed flats would intrude into the privacy of existing apartments at  6 Headley Road.

The neighbouring building 6 Headley Road contains apartments on the upper floors, and a Lidl and Woodley Central Surgery on the ground floor.

The decision to refuse the original plan was made by Wokingham Borough Council’s planning committee on Wednesday, March 8, under application reference 222367.

During discussion, committee member councillor Stephen Conway (Liberal Democrats, Twyford) argued overlooking into neighbours flats was a problem.

Cllr Conway said: “I don’t think this is an acceptable relationship.

“I think it will give scope for overlooking, and it will make people feel as though they are overlooked even if they are not physically being overlooked.”

Despite this concern, there has been no change to the proposed height of the Library Parade with the extensions.

Furthermore, in an attempt to address concerns about the loss of privacy, there are now only two flats proposed on the third floor, located 15 metres away from the neighbouring apartments.

The proposed section for the plan for 14 flats at the Woodley Library Parade building. Credit: Hanslink Ltd

As with the rejected plan, the shops on the ground floor would be retained, with the offices on the first floor being converted into space for flats.

The developer’s planning agents have argued the offices are “dormant and unviable.”

Of the 14 flats proposed, six one-bed and one two-bed apartments would be located on the first floor, the second floor would contain three one-bed and three two-bed apartments, with the upper floor containing two two-bed flats.

You can view the new application by typing reference 230743 into Wokingham Borough Council’s planning portal.