{"id":274730,"date":"2026-08-29T15:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274730\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T15:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:58:17","slug":"decision-due-on-600-new-flats-in-reading-town-centre-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/274730\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision due on 600 new flats in Reading town centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A decision is due to be made on plans to build nearly 600 flats in Reading town centre.<\/p>\n<p>The proposals are the third phase of the Station Hill development, one of the biggest projects in the town.<\/p>\n<p>A decision will be made about detailed plans for Phase 3A of the development, which would see 598 flats built within two new apartment blocks, by Reading Borough Council&#8217;s planning committee later.<\/p>\n<p>The Station Hill development project has so far included restaurants, an office building, and 600 further flats.<\/p>\n<p>Phase 1 saw Friars Walk shopping centre replaced by apartments and the Siren Craft bar, with Phase 2 seeing One Station Hill built on the site of the Garrard Street multi-storey car park.<\/p>\n<p>The new flats will be split into 34 studios, 330 one-beds, 214 two-beds and 22 three-bed flats.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;High quality of architechture&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Xafinity House, a defunct multi-storey office building, would need to be demolished to make way for the apartments.<\/p>\n<p>The plans are supported by Steve Vigar, the council&#8217;s planning team leader.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the <a data-ylk=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/lnp\/ldrs?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Baol.com%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Local Democracy Reporting Service,<\/a> he said: &#8220;The design of buildings would offer a high quality of architecture, which would have a positive effect on the townscape at close quarters and from other viewpoints in the town.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Outline plans for the project were approved in July 2021, subject to detailed plans being approved at a later stage.<\/p>\n<p>Changes made since include the scrapping of a single L-shaped building design in favour of separate blocks.<\/p>\n<p>The development will provide 75 affordable rental flats, split into three three-bed, 27 two-bed and 45 one-bed flats, amounting to 12.5% affordable housing provision, less than the council&#8217;s policy of 30%.<\/p>\n<p>The development project is car-free, except for four disabled spaces, with 337 cycle spaces provided.<\/p>\n<p>        More on this story<\/p>\n<p>        Related internet links<br \/>\n      <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/393caf8a-3404-46ea-96bc-072ca26a51b9.jpg\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/393caf8a-3404-46ea-96bc-072ca26a51b9.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decision is due to be made on plans to build nearly 600 flats in Reading town centre.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-274730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}