Bray Lake 99 homes set for decision in upcoming council meeting

Windsor and Maidenhead council is set to discuss a controversial application for 99 homes on land south of Bray Lake on Wednesday night – recommended for approval.

This is a joint application by Shanly Homes and Summerleaze covering a site known in the Borough Local Plan (BLP) as AL26.

The site has a total area of 4.13 hectares, located on the northeast side of Windsor Road (A308).

There would be 36 three-bed homes, 11 four-beds and 12 five-beds, all detached and semi-detached houses.

Two flat blocks would be in the southeastern parcel of the site, set back from the Windsor Road. Collectively, the flats will contain 39 bedrooms.

Affordable housing makes up 40 per cent of the housing, in a mix of semi-detached and terraced buildings.

These would take the form of six one-bed flats, 12 two-bed flats, 10 two-bed houses, 11 three-bed houses and a single four-bed house.

Aside from the apartment buildings – which would be three storeys – all buildings would two storeys high, except the 12 detached houses which are 2.5 storeys high.

The north and northeast corner of the site are within Flood Zones 2 and 3 – with Flood Zone 3 being the highest flood risk.

Also included is an area of public open space of about 770sqm, featuring a play area.

The development would provide 229 car parking spaces, of which 218 would be allocated, with 11 visitor spaces.

Cycle parking is proposed for each home and flat – there would be 23 bicycles spaces for the 18 flats.

Bray Parish Council spoke stridently against the plans at its meeting in early August.

Among other concerns, it was worried about the air quality impacts of traffic. The parish council was unconvinced by the projected number of car journeys.

Some mitigations have been proposed with the development.

The applicant has ‘committed’ to providing a new off-site zebra crossing, on the A308, close to the entrance of the site.

With such a crossing, the proposed vehicular access point from the A308 is ‘acceptable’, wrote council officers.

As such, the development ‘would not result in material harm to highway safety in the surrounding area.’

Officers recommended that the committee authorise the application, subject to a few conditions – including carbon offsetting contributions amounting to more than £236,000.

Also included in the conditions is the zebra crossing and bus shelter improvements – up to £10,000 for the two bus stops outside the host site.

Planning permission can be refused if the developer can’t demonstrate it can deliver these.

Maidenhead Development Management Committee will consider the outline application that just covers the access, appearance, layout and scale for now at its next meeting on Wednesday.

‘All other matters’ are reserved, meaning that there is set to be another planning application covering other aspects in more detail. Reserved matters for this site will determine the landscaping proposals.

To see all documents, enter reference number 22/01791/OUT into the Royal Borough council’s planning portal at https://publicaccess.rbwm.gov.uk/online-applications