This report recommends that consultation be undertaken on a Draft Town Centre Public Realm Strategy Supplementary Planning Document, providing policy and guidance to improve the quality of the public realm throughout central Reading and to supplement the Local Plan in making decisions on planning applications in the town centre.

The Committee considered a report recommending that consultation be undertaken on a Draft Town Centre Public Realm Strategy Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) to provide detailed policy and guidance to improve the quality of the public realm throughout central Reading and to supplement the Local Plan in making decisions on planning applications in the town centre.  An Equality Impact Assessment was attached to the report at Appendix 1 and the Draft Town Centre Public Realm Strategy SPD attached to the report at Appendix 2.

The report noted that there was currently no single detailed document that guided the quality of public realm in the centre.  Many of the key development sites that would deliver growth in the town centre were currently at planning application or pre-application stage, or were expected to be soon, and there was considered to be a lack of more specific guidance to ensure that all improvements were working to an agreed framework for where and how the public realm was to be improved.  Without a full strategy, there was a likelihood that decisions that affected the public realm would be made on an ad hoc basis, undermining the character and cohesiveness of central Reading.  The Council’s Local Development Scheme, the most recent version of which had been approved by Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport Committee at its meeting on 27 June 2024 (Minute 5 refers), included production of a Town Centre Public Realm Strategy SPD to provide detailed policy and guidance to improve the quality of the public realm throughout central Reading.

The report explained that the guidance document was proposed to have SPD status in order that it could be used to inform planning decisions relating to developments that would affect the public realm. However, it was also intended to have a much wider purpose in guiding all interventions in the town centre public realm, whether or not planning permission was required, and including the Council’s own works in the public realm outside the development process, to ensure that streets and spaces achieved a consistent quality across the town centre. The Strategy had been prepared with input from all relevant sections of the Council.

The report summarised the content of the Strategy which included an audit of the existing public realm and pedestrian and cycle movement in the town centre, an overall pedestrian and cycle movement framework, including defining a typology of streets and spaces, a design manual for various features of the public realm, and more detailed public realm proposals for five particularly significant streets and spaces, including illustrative proposals.

The report explained that consultation would be undertaken between November 2024 and January 2025, and the results of the consultation reported to a future meeting of the Policy Committee or Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport Committee when the SPD was considered for adoption.

Resolved -

(1)       That the Draft Town Centre Public Realm Strategy SPD, as attached to the report at Appendix 2, be approved for consultation;

(2)       That the Assistant Director of Planning, Transport and Public Protection be authorised to make any minor amendments necessary to the SPD that did not alter the policy direction, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Planning and Assets, prior to consultation.