Office Block Conversion into Court Approved

Reading planning roundup

An office building in Reading town centre will be turned into a court after clearing a key planning hurdle.

Offices into Tribunal Court (PL/25/0616)

Sovereign House, opposite Reading station in Vastern Road, has been granted permission to become a Tribunal Court. The building — formerly the Sovereign Housing Association headquarters and now vacant — will be converted by the Ministry of Justice after a legal agreement with the council. The internal space will be repurposed to provide even hearing rooms, 10 judicial offices and ancillary facilities.

Unauthorised outbuilding and Airbnb (PL/25/1183)

The council has not determined an application to use a newly built outbuilding at the junction of Gloucester Road and Elm Park Road as an Airbnb because an enforcement notice, issued last September, requires the building to be removed. The decision states: “The building in situ is subject of an enforcement notice which requires the dismantling of the building and its removal from the land. “The Local Planning Authority declines to determine this application on this basis.”

HMO conversion refused (PL/25/1536)

A proposal to convert a house in Donnington Road — within walking distance of the University of Reading Whiteknights Campus — into a house in multiple occupation has been refused. Planning officer Nathalie Weekes visited the site on 6 January where work is ongoing on an approved extension. The application was rejected because of the substantial number of existing HMOs in the area.

Workshop to two homes approved (PL/25/1315)

A vacant two-storey workshop in York Road, in the Bell Tower area near Caversham Road, has permission to be converted into two one‑bed homes. Each unit will have kitchen/living space on the ground floor with a double bedroom and bathroom above.

You can view each application by typing the reference in brackets into Reading Borough Council’s planning portal.

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter