Maidenhead pub site can become new homes as planning battle draws to close

Four new homes can be built in the car park of a pub in Maidenhead, an inspector has ruled, bringing an end to a five-year-long planning battle.

The Crown in Wootton Way, Boyn Hill, has been the subject of repeated proposals for flats and homes at the site since 2020, all of which have been turned down by the council.

A fight for homes at the pub site began when a bid for 12 flats in a single four-storey block was refused by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council in 2020.  

Refusal for applications submitted over the following six years saw the developer’s plans watered down to 10 flats, and then the latest bid for four semi-detached homes.

This application was refused by RBWM in 2024, with the council claiming the homes would be ‘out of character’ and ‘fail to respect or make a positive contribution’ to the surrounding area.

The decision also said problems could also be caused by car parking arrangements at the site, which the local authority worried might put the safety of people using nearby roads at risk.

But the developer, believing its plan to be acceptable, appealed the decision to the Government Planning Inspectorate in a bid to overrule the council’s objection.

The statement of case said: “The Crown has ceased trading due to decreased demand for a public house in what is predominantly a residential area and [the pub site] is now in a state of partial disrepair.”

It warned: “If the site cannot be developed, then it would remain vacant for the foreseeable future.”

Council officers hit back at the development, in their own statement of case for the appeal.

“The harm identified is afforded significant weight,” the local authority’s case said.

“The weight attributed to all the material considerations [or] benefits put forward by the Appellant has not been found to outweigh the harm identified.

“There are no other material considerations that indicate that full planning consent should be granted.”

But in a decision notice published this month, inspector G Sibley overruled the council’s objections and said the new homes could be built.

“The frontage of these properties would appear residential in character and thus would respect the residential context the development would be within,” the inspector said in the report.  

The inspector also found that the homes ‘would not harm highway safety’, despite an apparent bid to bring the pub back into operation.

The ruling noted a 2024 application which included amended floor plans to the pub building and suggested, the inspector considered, ‘an application to reopen the Crown Public House’.

But the inspector said: ‘I am not aware of the outcome of this application, and it is not evident that the public house would necessarily reopen’.

“Each case must be determined on its own merits and the circumstances before me at the time of this decision.”

Several conditions were included in the inspector’s ruling such as that development begin within three years of the appeal decision being issued.