Shanly Homes submits plans for 49 flats at church site

Town: Plans in for eight-storey block on church site

Shanly Homes has submitted plans to build an eight-storey block of flats on the site of a Maidenhead town centre church.

An outline application to build 49 flats on the site of Maidenhead Spiritualist Church, off York Road, has been submitted to the council for consideration.

Developer Shanly Homes already has planning permission to build a sevenstorey block of 53 flats on the former St John Ambulance Site, which is right next to the church.

The scheme would consist of 17 one-bed and 32 two-bed apartments, as well as 26 car parking spaces. Drawings show the proposed building would be eight storeys high.

As part of the plans, the developer would relocate the church to River View Lodge

in Ray Mead Road. Planning permission for this has already been granted.

The developer is contractually obliged to provide this before commencing work on the York Road site, provided planning permission is granted. The outline planning permission is for access, appearance, layout and scale only. Other matters would be determined in a further application.

The design and access statements says: “This project is part of Shanly Homes’ continuing commitment to the rejuvenation of Maidenhead town centre which began with the Chapel Arches scheme and includes the Bowls Club, 23 to 33

York Road and the St John Centre.

“The redevelopment of the Church site will allow the last piece of the York Road jigsaw to fall into place and bring forward another key element of Maidenhead’s rejuvenation.”

No affordable housing is included in the plans. On this, the planning statement says: “The application is supported by a detailed viability assessment which sets out the reasons why the scheme cannot provide affordable housing.

“These include the costs of relocating the church to new premises and a decline in sales values (based on Pre-COVID data).”

Visit publicaccess.rbwm. gov.uk/online-applications/ and use reference 20/03149/OUT