I couldn't attend the Reading UTC planning exhibition yesterday, as I was chairing a meeting on building community capacity – Melanie went along – but almost as we have been predicting I hear that the whole site has been sold by the University of West London to the Department for Education. They in turn have sold half to the UTC and the other half to a developer.
Here is a statement from the developer – Square Bay. It should be noted that the Council's planning policy is that this site can only be developed for housing if there is no education need. We will obviously be fighting this.
"As the UTC did not require the whole of the campus, West London University have sold the remaining buildings and hard tennis courts to Square Bay. This area is made up of a section of land at the corner of Bulmershe Road and Crescent Road and the hard tennis courts that front onto the unmade section of Bulmershe Road. It is intended to develop this land for housing in accordance with the Council’s planning policy SA7.
The new owner will shortly be engaging in pre-application discussions with senior officers of Reading Borough Council, prior to bringing forward an application for development of this land. Public consultation will be undertaken locally on the proposed scheme prior to an application being made, and all interested parties will be invited to comment at that time, in addition to normal statutory consultation during the application process. As these discussions are at a very early stage, it is not possible at this time to give more detailed information at the current time.”
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