The Emmer Green Drive development is in the process of being built at the former Reading Golf Course off Kidmore End Road in Caversham.
The project will see 223 homes built once completed, after the development was approved by Reading Borough Council in March 2022.
Reading Golf Club and its planning consultants Fairfax subsequently submitted a plan to add 70 homes to the development on vacant golf course land.
The site falls within South Oxfordshire District Council’s (SODC’s) jurisdiction.
In an upset for the developers, SODC’s planning committee rejected the proposed extension as the land has not been designated for housing and is deemed to be in an unsustainable location.
But the project could still go ahead, as Reading Borough Council has been told by the developers that they intend to appeal against that decision to the government’s planning inspectorate.
If the extension is approved, the Emmer Green Drive development will total 293 homes.
The rejection and possible appeal were reported to Reading council’s planning applications committee on January 7.
If the development goes ahead, Reading council wants the developers to pay it £150,000 to make safety improvements to the Last Crumb junction.
Campaigners have been calling for safety upgrades to this junction for Prospect Street, Westfield Road and Henley Road for years.
There was confusion due to the position of the site right on the borough boundary.
While all of the land for the 70 homes is within South Oxfordshire, the sole access to the extension would be within Reading Borough.
The illustrative masterplan for the application to add 70 homes to the Emmer Green Drive development in Caversham. (Image: Fabrik)
It was implied that councillors had to focus on their comments to South Oxfordshire’s planning department when the project was discussed at the Reading meeting in November.
Julie Williams, the council’s development manager, said: “If we had been bringing our own application to you at the same time, we would have been recommending approval.
“I don’t want to say too much, but in terms of the fact that we’ve already granted permission for the majority of the site, this is, in a way, an extension to that.
“There is very little for officers to find a planning reason for why we shouldn’t approve the part that’s in our borough.”
Councillors on Reading’s planning applications committee are expected to make a resolution on how they would have decided if they had the power to make a verdict when they meet on February 4.
You can view the application on SODC’s planning portal using reference P25/S1431/O and Reading’s portal using reference PL/25/0691.
The committee previously had to make a similar resolution for the outline project for hundreds of flats and commercial space to replace Reading Station Shopping Park in February 2022, which was ultimately approved by the government in March 2024.
An original plan to build on the golf course in Caversham was withdrawn in November 2020, and a second plan was rejected by Reading council in July 2021.
Fairfax submitted an appeal against that decision, which was live when Reading councillors approved the successful plan for 223 homes on the site.
That appeal was subsequently withdrawn.
