A block of flats will replace an Indian restaurant in Crowthorne after plans have been approved.
The landowner, Neil De-Mendonca, applied this year to build eight flats where The Mango Tree restaurant used to be in Church Street, Crowthorne.
Although he had already won permission to replace the demolished restaurant with five flats, Mr De-Mendonca wanted to add more three flats into the new building.
There was a bid to replace The Mango Tree with 10 apartments, but this was torpedoed by Bracknell Forest Council’s planning bosses in September last year, as it was felt that the plan for 10 two-bedroom flats was ‘detrimental to the character of the area’, ‘cramped’, ‘unsafe’ from an access point of view and its layout was ‘substandard’.
READ MORE: Plans to replace former restaurant with ten new homes REFUSED by council chiefs
But now Mr De-Mendonca has won the right to replace the demolished restaurant with eight flats contained within one newbuild house.
Floorplans for the house show that each flat will have two bedrooms, with two shower rooms for the occupants. There will be three flats each on the ground floor and the first floor, with a further two located in the roof space. Designs for how the building will look can be seen in the gallery above.
The scheme was approved by Bracknell Forest Council’s planning committee by 14 votes to one, with only Cllr Tina McKenzie-Boyle (Conservative, Crowthorne) voted against it.
Cllr McKenzie-Boyle said she felt the committee was being “bullied” into filling the “gap” left by the restaurant when demolition was approved in 2018.
The site is currently sealed off with hoardings.
There was also concerns over the plan falling short of the council’s parking standards.
A total of 17 car parking spaces will be provided, including two disabled bays – which is one less than what the council’s parking standards demand.
But in summing up, Cllr Colin Dudley, the chairman of the committee, said that officers had recommended that it would be “far more suitable” to leave out the missing car parking space -which would be reserved for visitors at the front of the building- to eliminate the need for future visitors to have to reverse out onto the road.
READ MORE: Plan to add flats to building in Crowthorne with no extra parking refused
Cllr Dudley also pointed out the Crowthorne Parish Council recommended that the plan be approved.
But these arguments failed to convince Cllr McKenzie-Boyle.
Opposing the plan, Cllr McKenzie-Boyle said: “As much as I’d like to support the Parish Council on this, I’ve also got to think about our community, and I’ve had a lot of emails and phone calls from our residents to say that five flats is enough, eight is too many, especially when a coach and horses has been run through our parking standards.”
You can view tweet updates from the meeting here: https://twitter.com/jamesAjourno/status/1448922279942017044
Approval to build the flats was granted on Thursday, October 14.
You can view documents for the approved plan by putting reference 21/00217/FUL into Bracknell Forest Council's planning portal here https://planapp.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/online-applications/
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