Maidenhead & Windsor

The Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough has turned down a planning application for more than 400 houses and flats and an extra care housing scheme at St Mary's Park, Maidenhead, a large part of which is on the contaminated waste site at Badnell's Pit.

At a special 2¼-hour meeting last night (Monday April 21), members of Maidenhead development control panel unanimously refused the application from Michael Shanly Homes who want to develop the site after decontamination and remediation works have been completed. Approval for these works was granted on appeal in 2006.

The application was for 402 flats and houses and an extra care housing scheme on the site, along with car parking, open spaces and landscaping. The main access would have been off Blackamoor Lane, with limited secondary access off Simpson Close, a footway link to Deerswood and a separate pedestrian/cycleway connection to Blackamoor Lane.

The panel made it clear that they did not object to new housing on the site but they believed the scale, height and density of the Shanly proposal constituted a severe overdevelopment and raised serious concerns about the adverse impact on local roads.

Members also expressed concern that, as a result of the costs involved in the remediation of the site, the developer had not proposed any much-needed affordable housing nor the full level of Section 106 contributions necessary to meet the increased infrastructure needs of the community if the development went ahead.

The special Windsor and Maidenhead DC meeting was held in the Desborough Suite of the Town Hall to cater for the large number of local people who wished to attend. Chairman Cllr Derek Wilson also extended speaking times to allow panel members to hear the extensive submissions from both the applicant and objectors before taking their decision.

Cllr Wilson said: "This was an extremely complex application for the biggest housing development proposal the Royal Borough has ever dealt with. The controversial history of the Badnell's Pit site and the magnitude of the proposed housing development meant we had to take time and great care over reaching a decision.

"We appreciate that the remediation of the site depends entirely on the developer having a viable housing development. However our job as a DC panel is to ensure that the application meets the necessary planning requirements – and in this case we believe it failed on a number of very important counts.

"We want to make it clear that the Royal Borough does not object to housing on this site as such and we hope Michael Shanly Homes will take the panel's views into account and make changes to the application to overcome the planning issues we have raised."

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead