Plans in for homes at driving range
Royal Borough: Large development applications in public notices
In the public notices this week, 215 homes are planned for the golf club site. Plans have also moved forward for 135 homes on West Windsor land.
Planning
Plans are in for land south of Harvest Hill Road in Maidenhead, off Kimbers Lane – which forms part of the ‘South West Maidenhead’ development area.
The existing site covers approximately 8.52 hectares, currently used as a golf driving range and is located to the south of Maidenhead and to the north of the A308(M).
Taylor Wimpey UK Ltd is looking to pitch in 215 homes, ranging from one-bedroom apartments to five-bedroom houses.
Affordable housing will make up 30 per cent of these, across a range of flats and houses, including social rent and affordable rents plus shared ownership.
The breakdown of this is 23 one-beds (12 affordable); 62 two-beds (20 affordable); 112 three-beds; (17 affordable); 11 fourbeds (six affordable); and seven five-beds.
The scheme also aims to provide eight self-build plots.
Affordable dwellings are to be evenly spaced in small clusters dotted around the site.
Development ranges from one to four storeys in height. The applicant says the council’s Tall Building SPD (draft) – which gives guidelines for where tall buildings can go – supports up to four storeys there.
The site is being divided into two character areas – along the ‘green spine’, where building heights are expected to be 2.5 to four storeys; and the central zone, expected to host two-three storey properties.
These areas are to be located centrally in smaller pockets of housing, typically semidetached and terraces.
These areas will include courtyard and frontage parking arrangements, with smaller front gardens.
All apartments will include private amenity space in the form of balconies or terraces.
There will also be ‘open space suitable for the whole community’ and ‘general public open space’ including ‘a range’ of equipped play areas for children of all ages.
For the roads, a single access into and out of the site is planned off Harvest Hill Road, with a separate four-metre cycle and pedestrian entry.
Much has been made previously about the ‘green spine’ running through the golf course site, which will go from the open space in the south through to Harvest Hill Road.
A landscaping scheme will retain the majority of existing hedges and trees and ‘significantly soften’ the proposed development area.
“The vast majority of the site comprises species-poor semi-improved grassland, which is of little ecological interest,” wrote Taylor Wimpey.
Instead, to boost biodiversity, it is proposing hedgehog highways, bat boxes, bird boxes and invertebrate features.
To see all plans, see reference 23/00511/FULL in the Borough’s planning portal.
Meanwhile, extra plans are in for land in West Windsor (AL21), north of the A308, for 135 homes – also known as land adjacent to The Hatch, south of Maidenhead Road and north of Windsor Road, in Water Oakley
This also includes areas of public open space, including play spaces and pocket allotments.
Some aspects of the plans have previously been explored.
The principle of development at the site has already been established by the council’s grant of outline planning permission (reference 22/00934).
This confirms that the site is capable of accommodating up to 135 dwellings with vehicle accesses onto Maidenhead Road.
Now the developer, Crest Nicholson South, has outlined ‘reserved matters’, which cover more parts of the plans for the site in detail.
In this case, these matters are appearance, landscaping, layout and scale.
Specifically, it is looking at what kinds of houses might be on the site, as well as what amenities.
Building form varies, with ‘potential for some terraced forms and also small apartment buildings.’
There are ‘also opportunities for semi or detached properties.’
Potential community garden areas are proposed as either allotments or ‘micro-allotments’.
The south-east corner of site is to be retained as ‘scrub’ land to enhance ecological value of site.
A three-metre-wide shared pedestrian and cycleway is proposed, linking A308 crossing with north access and Maidenhead Road.
To look at these points in more detail, see reference 23/00582/REM.
Lastly, there is an application to add two storeys to a building in Marlow Road to provide 27 additional homes at InVentiv Health, Thames House (reference 23/00556/PT20AA).