A decision is due on a plan to convert a grand house set amongst parkland in Bracknell into flats.
A decision is due on plans to convert a grand house and neighbouring office block in Bracknell into 33 flats.
Lily Hill House began as a hunting lodge on former Windsor Forest land, with the first house built around 1817 by Henry Dormer Vincent. His son, Henry William Vincent, remodelled it in the 1840s and 1850s into a Victorian gentleman’s residence set in parkland.
It was bought by the Bracknell Development Corporation in 1955 and passed to Bracknell Forest Council in 1983. Since then it has been converted into offices and Lily Hill Court offices were added on the site in the 1990s.
Owner Lily Hill Park Ltd now wants to convert both buildings into homes: Lily Hill House into 20 flats (12 one-bed or studio, six two-bed and two three-bed) and Lily Hill Court into 13 flats (three one-bed and 10 two-bed).
Neighbours have raised safety concerns about traffic and crashes at the site. One resident wrote:
“My concern is for the increase in traffic at the junction of Lily Hill Road and the access road for the Park car park and Lily Hill house site, and the potential need for traffic calming measures.
“Several years ago, I contacted my councillor as I had witnessed, on several occasions, near accidents involving cars turning right out of the access and into the path of speeding traffic coming up the hill from the Running Horse roundabout.
“At the time, the 30 mph illuminating warning sign was inactive and following my representation a new one was installed.
“Cars exiting the site have a very limited view of approaching traffic from the left as the road curves to the left and drops away down the hill.
“The 30mph limit is routinely ignored on this stretch of road and drivers approaching the junction up the hill from the west cannot see exiting cars until they are almost at the junction with Waldron Hill.”
The resident asked for a pedestrian crossing to calm traffic. Bracknell Forest Council’s highways department, however, raised no objections.
There have been 34 public comments on the application. Some respondents also worried future residents could be disturbed by the nearby Bracknell Lawns Tennis Club, which plays at Lily Hill Park, but a noise impact assessment submitted by the applicants was judged satisfactory by council planning officer Simon Roskilly.
The scheme will be decided by Bracknell Forest Council’s planning committee on Thursday, January 15. View the application using reference 25/00727/PAE on the council planning portal.
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
