Changes have been made to huge development of hundreds of flats at Broad Street Mall that is moving ahead.
Exciting changes are underway at the Broad Street Mall, with plans to add 643 new flats to the site.
Developers AEW and McLaren Living are pushing forward after securing approval from Reading Borough Council's planning committee in April. However, they’ve requested a shift in access to the mall.
Currently, access is available via two routes: the Inner Distribution Road (IDR) and Castle Street. The developers now prefer access from the IDR only, due to potential land ownership conflicts.
A report by council officer Richard Eatough noted, “Should negotiations with the third-party landowner fail, access to the multi-storey car park will be solely from the IDR slip road.” This change could limit future access from Castle Street.
Eatough confirmed that no objections arose during public consultations and deemed the traffic increase from this adjustment as negligible, ensuring minimal impact on noise and air quality.
Local councillor Micky Leng explained, “To avoid leverage and ransom issues, they seek an alternative route to aid negotiations and advance the Broad Street Mall project.”
Councillor Jan Gavin requested clearer diagrams for any future access changes.
The council's planning applications committee unanimously approved the access change on October 8.
Additionally, last month, the council decided to sell the mall car park to the developers, reducing parking from 720 spaces to around 330 publicly available spots.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
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