Plans for more parking at Windsor company approved

A long-standing manufacturing company in Windsor has secured permission to replace an empty home on its site with new car parking spaces.

Keeler, an optical manufacturing company in Clewer Hill Road, opened in the borough back in 1989.

In 2024, plans to change the use of a residential property on the site, also owned by the company, into commercial use and build 22 parking spaces were rejected.

At a Windsor and Ascot Development Management Committee meeting on Thursday (January 8),  fresh plans looking to demolish the derelict single-storey building at 57B and ‘modernise’ the Keeler warehouse came before councillors.

The Royal Borough’s principal planning officer, Nick Westlake, told the York House meeting that the company does not meet the minimum parking standards needed for the number of employees working on site.

Keeler employs 148 members of staff, but only 130 work full time. There are 85 existing parking spaces for them.

Thus, demolishing the residential property, which has been vacant since 2006, is ‘justified’, Mr Westlake added.

The extra space would allow Keeler to build 21 additional parking bays and six EV charging points.

Some of the existing parking spaces will also be lost as part of the improvements planned, so the net increase in spaces will be 15, taking the total number of parking bays to 100.

Other works included in the proposals seek to add a new disability access entrance onto the site and change an existing archive store into a space for industrial research.

But councillor Julian Sharpe (Con, Sunninghill and Ascot) said that adding more parking on site would go against the borough’s sustainability principles.

Cllr Sharpe said: “If there are bus facilities there, do we actually need more car parking spaces. If there is [a bus stop] aren’t we supposed to be encouraging walking and cycling, rather than encouraging cars?

[This proposal] is encouraging car use.”

There is a bus stop nearby in Clewer Hill Road.

But Mr Westlake reassured Cllr Sharpe that there is a ‘drive towards sustainability’, with the company also providing shower facilities and cycle parking on site.

Mr Westlake said that the ‘uplift’ in parking spaces will get Keeler closer to meeting the borough’s minimum parking standards for such a large company, even though it will still be ‘well below’ those standards.

Cllr Julian Tisi (Lib Dem, Eton and Castle) said: “I think the balance here is overwhelmingly positive.

“We shouldn’t be punishing a local business because they’ve historically underused their parking allocation and now want to improve it a little.”

Although there is a harm in losing the bungalow on site, there is an economic benefit that will come after the demolition, Cllr Tisi added.

An existing overclad asbestos roof finish will also need to be replaced as part of the proposals.

The application documents said that other buildings on the site may contain asbestos, given the age of the vacant residential building, so extra care must be taken during the demolition process and during the clearing of the site.

Councillors ultimately agreed that the redevelopment is a ‘really good use’ of the land for such a long-standing company in Windsor and unanimously voted to approve the plans.