Slough developer in trouble as flats built without permission

A building containing three two-bedroom flats has nearly been completed at corner of St Paul’s Avenue and Stoke Road, a main north-south arterial route in the town.

However, the builders in charge of the development are in trouble as Slough Borough Council has ruled that the flats have been made differently to what the council has approved of.

The site has been dormant for years, with plans to build homes there going through several iterations.

Initially, a developer called Dillon Homes won permission to build two buildings containing a total of eight two-bed flats and one new three-bedroom on the site, which has since been taken over by a company called Jasmine Developments South East.

The site was home to a one-storey commercial building.

The corner of Stoke Road and St Pauls Avenue in Slough. The commercial unit was put up for sale in 2014 and demolished during the pandemic. Credit: Google Maps

Although the rear of the building was home to Slough Radio Control Models until about 2016, the front unit was closed off for years on end, before the site was sealed off and demolished during the pandemic.

Although six two-bedroom flats and a three-bedroom home were completed in 2019, the borough council’s planning department found that the building fronting onto Stoke Road has deviated from plans approved in 2018.

The completed flats and three-bedroom home at St Pauls Avenue in Slough. Credit: Google Maps

Jasmine Developments attempted to get the flats approved as built, pointing out the they had been built in ‘dead space’ and would deliver on the objective of providing housing in the borough.

The developers pleaded for a ‘favourable decision’, which was rejected by the council’s planning department.

A council planning report states: “Not only has the building been built significantly higher than the adjacent property it has not been built in accordance with the schedule of approved materials.

“The flats and house facing St Pauls Avenue have been constructed in accordance with the approved external materials, with red brick being used for the ground and first floors and render for the top part of the buildings.

“This building was meant to have a similar proportion of brick and render but it is effectively white render above street level.

“It therefore loses its homogeneity with the group of buildings of which it was designed to form part of that development and the new chapter of the site’s planning history.

“Moreover, its stark appearance to the St Paul’s Avenue street scene emphasises how it is currently uninformed by its local context.

“Furthermore, the combination of the increase in height and failure to build in accordance with the approved materials results in a discordant addition to the street scene, dominating its neighbouring building representing an obtrusive and overwhelming addition to this prominent corner site, with an incongruous vertical emphasis.”

Ultimately, the retrospective plan was rejected by planning officer Chris Sawden on March 26.

You can view it by typing reference P/16250/006 into the council’s planning website.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service was only able to find Jasmine Developments South East on Companies House.