Letter: No More Dithering – We Need a Heights Policy Now

Published on: 9 Mar, 2025
Updated on: 9 Mar, 2025

The Quadrant site on the corner of Bridge Street and Onslow Street

From Richard Mills

Conservative borough councillor for Castle ward

See: Sale of ‘The Quadrant’ Site Could Offer Major Town Centre Development Opportunity

The report that the Quadrant site is on the market highlights again the need for a stronger heights policy for the Town. In the last few years, the Town’s historic skyline of four to five stories has been breached by a series of major developments approved by Liberal Democrat and Lib Dem/R4GV administrations that has taken the going rate north of ten stories with little regard for residents’ concerns.

It is encouraging that Cllr Tom Hunt, the Liberal Democrat’s lead spokesman on regeneration, has now made clear his commitment to preparation of a planning brief to provide guidance on the council’s expectations for the site. That is important.

It was in part the failure to produce such guidance for the Debenhams site that condemned the town to a replacement building that the then chair of the Planning Committee [Cllr Fiona White (Lib Dem, Ash Vale)] could fairly describe as that ‘b….y awful building’.

But whatever guidance the document offers on building height, there has to be a doubt that it alone will provide sufficient protection for this site, let alone for the town more widely, particularly in the light of the Labour Government’s headlong drive for development at any cost.

It is important therefore that the council’s Liberal Democrat Executive now deliver on their wider commitment to introduce a Supplementary Planning Document that would allow tighter restrictions on building height, a commitment they finally gave in July last year in answer to a written question in council.

This indicated that the draft should come forward by the end of last year. That deadline has come and gone. It is not good enough to plead pressure of business or shortage of staff. It is time to deliver on this commitment and end dithering and delay, so that we can at last have effective control of our town centre’s development.