Stemming loss of office space
Maidenhead: Action to protect employment opportunity
Windsor and Maidenhead council is taking steps to crack down on a planning process that has led to unwanted loss of office space in the Borough.
Currently, developers are able to change a site from commercial use to residential use via a fast-track check-list procedure, if eligible.
Known as the ‘prior approval’ process, this is a national policy – and developers with this avenue have what is called ‘permitted development rights’ (PDR).
Permitted development rights allow people to improve and extend a site without needing to apply for full planning permission that would be ‘out of proportion’ with the impact of works.
They are subject to national conditions and limitations – such as limits on height, size or location – and can be applicable for households looking for a simple extension, for example.
PDR can also allow change of use from one class of building to another; specifically, from commercial, business and service use to residential.
But the use of PDR in Windsor and Maidenhead has gone further than RBWM is comfortable with, as seen with the fateful Mattel House in Vanwall Business Park.
An application to turn it into flats was met with dismay from councillors decrying the loss of employment space this would bring.
They tried to turn the application down – but lost an appeal against the developer last year. Thus, the developer had the green light to turn the offices into 91 new flats.
In the case of Mattel House, the appellant had already secured a prior approval permission under PDR to convert the existing building to 28 flats.
This means that, even if the 91 flats appeal had failed, the site would still have been developed into homes and employment space would still have been lost.
In June, Maidonian Andrew Hill raised concerns that the Borough was leaving itself powerless to protect key employment sites under current rules.
He suggested the council speed up the process of instigating an ‘Article 4 Direction’ – which removes troublesome PDR for certain sites.
Article 4 does not prevent all conversions if they are ‘appropriate,’ the council says. It simply means developers will have to apply for full planning permission for change of use.
Other change-of-use applications already require going through the full planning permission process.
In 2019 Windsor and Maidenhead council was ‘in the process’ of implementing Article 4 to protect office space across the borough.
In a report commissioned by the council, its advisers said the council was reaching a point where further loss of office stock could mean it may have to allow building on green spaces to replace it.
In June last year, Mr Hill questioned the continued absence of these Article 4 powers.
Councillor Adam Bermange, cabinet member for planning, said that Article 4 directions needed to be followed carefully to remove the risk of legal and compensation claims.
Now it looks as though progress has been made; the Royal Borough is consulting Article 4 measures for 31 sites.
These locations include Vanwall Business Park, Maidenhead Office Park, Furze Platt Business Centre Park, Woodlands Business Park, Cordwallis Business Park, Foundation Park,
Boyn Valley Industrial Estate, Grove Park Business Park, Prior’s Way Industrial Estate, and Lower Mount Farm in Cookham.
The council says the current rules limit councils’ abilities to resist inappropriate conversions – even on sites protected under local planning policy, as PDR ‘overrides’ these.
Between 2013 and 2022, about 32,000sqm of office floorspace (equivalent to about 2,300 jobs) was lost through permitted development rights across the borough.
New measures will better protect locations ‘considered most important for supporting jobs and the local economy.’
Cllr Bermange said the situation was ‘not sustainable.’
“We need new housing, but we also need to keep enough space for jobs in the right locations, especially at our most important industrial and business parks.
“While such conversions are sometimes appropriate, they often do not provide the quality homes, family homes, or genuinely affordable homes we’re seeking for our borough.
“These measures will give us a greater level of control over employment floorspace on key sites, to resist inappropriate conversions and to have more control over design and therefore living conditions of residents when conversions are appropriate.”
As it is site-specific, the normal rights would still apply elsewhere in the borough, including in the town centres.
“[These] are growth areas, covering a large area, where we want to encourage a diverse range of uses,” said Cllr Bermange.
The consultation runs until March 12 and responses will be considered by cabinet.