Reading RG30
Two semi detached houses with rooms in the roof, replacing a block of garages behind 24 to 26 Wantage Road. The application included a planning statement, affordable housing statement, energy statement and biodiversity net gain assessment.
The site behind 24 to 26 Wantage Road in west Reading was occupied by a block of garages, a common situation in Reading's Victorian streets. Garage courts like this are often underused and can be good locations for small scale housing, but they sit close to the rear gardens of existing homes, so any scheme has to be carefully shaped around neighbours' amenity.
We designed two semi detached houses with rooms in the roof, keeping the eaves low and placing the second floor bedrooms within the roof slope to limit the bulk of the buildings. Side facing windows were kept to a minimum, with obscure glazing where needed, and the layout provides private gardens, parking and bin and cycle storage for each house. Brick and tiles were chosen to sit with the surrounding terraces.
The application included a planning statement explaining the case under Reading's policy H11 for development in residential gardens and backland, an affordable housing statement, an energy statement under the council's sustainability policies and a biodiversity net gain assessment with the statutory metric.
The drawing package shows the site layout, floor plans, elevations and street scene, with separation distances to neighbouring windows marked on the plans so the relationship with the existing terraces is clear. Each house has a private rear garden and storage for bins and cycles close to the access, and the parking layout keeps cars away from the rear gardens of the existing houses.
Backland schemes in Reading are checked against policies H11 on garden land, CC7 on design, CC8 on amenity and TR5 on parking, together with the council's sustainability and affordable housing policies. Each of these was addressed in the statements, so the drawings and documents tell one consistent story.
Backland and garage court sites in Reading are assessed under policy H11, which asks whether the scheme suits the character of the area, provides adequate amenity and avoids harm to neighbours. Our layout kept the houses low, placed the gardens to the rear and maintained separation from the existing houses. Using the existing garage access avoided a new opening in the street.
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