Taller replacement for office block
A five-storey office block described by one councillor as looking like an ‘alien spaceship’ is set to be built near central Maidenhead, writes George Roberts.
St Cloud Gate, an office building in St Cloud Way, will be demolished and a new building put up in its place after members of the Royal Borough Development Management Panel approved the plans on Wednesday, November 18.
The proposals stated that the new building would create around 350 new jobs in the town, and will consist of 4,844sq metres of grade A office space. It would also include a ground floor cafe.
Grade A office spaces are considered to be the highest quality and most state-ofthe-art facilities. The new building will replace the existing two and three-storey office on the site.
A previous application for a seven-storey building was rejected by the panel in 2019, but most members were satisfied that improvements had been made since then.
Not all councillors were convinced though. Cllr Joshua Reynolds (Lib Dem, Furze Platt) said: “I think this is an advancement on the previous scheme that
was voted on as a panel what feels like many months ago now.
“But still, I don’t think this is great.
“It’s on the wrong side of the A4. I look at it and my first impression is that someone has just dropped an alien spaceship next to the roundabout.
“I think it’s too high, I think its too large, I think it's overbearing on the listed building next to it.”
Cllr Geoff Hill (TBF, Oldfield) said: “I think the applicant has made great
strides with this building.
“Before, this was rejected because of the mass and scale of the building. They’ve taken that on board and reduced the size of the building.
“It’s grade A office space, which Maidenhead desperately needs. I think anybody with the courage to build office space now needs to be highly commended.”
All councillors, besides Cllr Reynolds and Cllr Amy Tisi (Lib Dem, Clewer East), voted to approve the scheme.