Britwell flats which faced enforced demolition get a second chance to keep going

Slough council has granted planning permission for a three-storey development in Britwell which previously faced enforcement action ordering its demolition.

Permission was originally granted in February 2021 (ref. P/17286/001) for 386sqm development including a nursery and 12 flats at Mars House, Long Furlong Drive.

However, when the building was completed, the ground floor was laid out as flats rather than nursery space as originally stated – a significant deviation from the approved plans.

As such, the council took enforcement action last summer, because the time cut-off for any enforcement was looming.

A notice was issued in July identifying ‘unauthorised erection of a three-storey building providing 19 flats’ and demanded the building’s demolition and full site clearance.

However, an appeal was lodged and Slough council got into discussions with the developer, ultimately leading to the enforcement notice being withdrawn in November.

A new application was submitted shortly afterwards, seeking to re-establish the previously approved scheme, with some modifications.

The current part-retrospective application describes a development of 12 flats (nine one-beds and three two-beds) on the first and second floors, with a nursery on the ground floor.

This holds the building to a layout closer to the originally approved plans.

The building footprint and the internal layouts of the first and second floors remain unchanged from the 2021 permission.

The car park has been altered slightly but will have the same number of spaces – 15, including two accessible bays.

Highways officers requested updated parking surveys to ensure there would be no overspill of parked cars coming from nursery staff and parents dropping off children.

The original data was from 2018 and was deemed not reflective of current conditions.

At a Slough Borough Council planning committee meeting on April 23, members of the panel questioned why enforcement was pursued when it was – and why it was withdrawn.

Officers responded that a ‘long-drawn-out construction process’ had delayed matters, but investigations showed it was ‘clear the ground floor was laid out as flats,’ against the plans.

The planning team told the panel that the new application is ‘principally the same development’ as approved, with the nursery restored to the ground floor.

Given the importance of the nursery to the original approval, Britwell ward councillor Pavitar Kaur Mann (Lab & Co-Op) ‘commended’ the enforcement action.

“Quite a lot of weight was given to the provision of the nursery [in planning deliberations] – it really was key to permission,” she said.

“If it wasn’t for that, the [planning] balance would be substantially different.”

Council officers explained that granting this revised permission ‘resets the clock’ on the window for enforcement action, allowing the council to take further action if the development does not proceed in line with the newly approved scheme.

The committee voted unanimously in favour of granting planning permission.