Shopping centre flats plan set for approval again

A major project to build more than 400 apartments on a site which includes a shopping centre's cinema and former Debenhams store is set to be approved later.

Long-standing plans to replace The Oracle's Vue cinema and the department store with the flats and new facilities should be approved by Reading Borough Council's planning committee, officers have said.

The centre, which opened in 1999, was fully taken over by Hammerson in November and has major stores, including Zara and Apple.

A decision over the plans was set to be taken in December but that was postponed so councillors could visit the site.

Hammerson's project is split in two, with one relating to the Vue building on the south bank of the River Kennet and the other relating to the former Debenhams on the north bank.

The southern proposal involves the demolition of the building containing Vue and the Côte Brasserie and Miller & Carter restaurants.

The company wants to replace those with three blocks which would be between six and 16 storeys tall and contain 218 flats.

The cinema would then be relocated into one of the blocks in a smaller facility.

It currently has 10 screens and 1,800 seats, but the new cinema would offer seven screens with a total of 511 seats.

On the other side of the river, the former Debenhams building would be partly demolished so two blocks between eight and 21 storeys could be created.

Those blocks would contain 218 flats, a "leisure unit", a restaurant and co-working shared office space.

The project is the latest in Berkshire which proposes using space in shopping centres for housing.

Slough's Queensmere Centre closed in January, ahead of a major revamp that will include 1,600 new homes, and Newbury's Kennet Centre closed on Saturday ahead of a renovation that will deliver hundreds of homes.

A major redevelopment of Maidenhead's Nicholson Centre will see about 860 flats built in a new-look complex and part of Reading's Broad Street Mall will be used for just over 640 homes.