Plans for New Pub Courtyard Approved in Reading

Reading Borough Council has recently approved a batch of planning applications, including how the courtyard of a new town-centre pub will operate, solar panels for a church conversion, a retrospective ATM, and a house extension in Whitley. You can view each approved application by typing the reference in brackets into the council's planning portal.

Plans for courtyard of new town centre pub approved (PL/26/0564)

The details of how the courtyard of an upcoming pub in Market Place will be managed have been signed off. A project is under way to create flats and turn the Coopers Arms into a new pub, with a courtyard at the rear. An agent from JDW Architects said: "The use of the courtyard shall remain ancillary to the operation of the pub and shall not be used for live music, DJs, public entertainment or other externally amplified events unless separately approved by the council and authorised under the appropriate licensing regime." The council approved these details on September 28.

New solar panels for church (PL/26/1024)

St Barnabas Church in Elm Road is being brought back into use and will become a community hub, the rector Nick Hill has said. Reading Gateway Church, which closed for worship last year after a boiler failure, won permission on September 25 to install 36 black photovoltaic panels on the pitch roof.

ATM for barber shop approved (PL/26/0849)

An ATM installed without permission on May 11 has been granted approval. The machine is on a building at the junction of Caversham Road and York Road, previously used as a scooter shop and grocers. Planning officer Huimin Chen found the ATM and shopfront changes acceptable.

Whitley home enlargement approved (PL/26/0966)

The owner of a semi-detached house in Foxhays Road has permission to replace an existing extension to enlarge the house, creating a ground-floor bedroom and shower room. Mr Chen said the new extension would be modest in scale; it was approved on September 29.

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter