Katesgrove Empty Homes Update

This starts with a tip.  If you want a coffee in town, for a meeting maybe, try Picnic, sandwiched off Market Square between Costa and Starbucks.  Genuinely independent and great coffee.  I can particularly recommend their macaroons!

Back before I was elected in 2007, Reading Borough Council had forgotten all the good practice it had built up on bringing empty homes back into use - it no longer even had a current strategy.  A Liberal Democrat motion soon rectified that.  I recently caught up with Nick the excellent Empty Homes Officer to check up on progress:-

South Street

41 South Street as seen in early 2007.  With the exception of the handrail, the transformation now is remarkable.  These former offices had planning consent for partial conversion into residential use, and following only a little attention from the empty homes officer, the block is pretty much as good as new.

7 South Street has seen less rapid progress.  Without going into too much detail, a lot of effort has gone into tracing the landlord and informing them of what needs to be done.

2-4 Winchester Road are one of the early successes of the programme, where only a little encouragement has been needed to bring the properties back into use.  This pair of semis were attracting a lot of dumping and graffiti; a lot of pressure and constant reporting (and passing onto the landlord) appear to have done the trick.

Now to the more complicated ones.

Townsend House - the hostel behind the John Lewis/Heelas depot - has a new owner and a planning application.  It appears there are good reasons why this building (a former hostel with a covenant to be used as affordable/social housing) has not attracted much interest.  I hope that the new owners are able to bring this property back into use.

67-73 Southampton Street - the tumbledown houses at the corner of Crown Street and Southampton Street.  I am limited in what I can say on this other than that there is some progress; it requires a number of Council departments to keep things moving; but there is now more progress than for years.

I also know that many Katesgrove residents are dismayed at the state of 35 Christchurch Road, the long-empty property opposite Christ Church and overlooked by Katesgrove as well as Redlands residents.  Building work is well under way although the owner, not for the first time, seems to think this is a suitable location for an outdoor rubbish dump.  I have asked the Council to put pressure on him to clear up and use financial penalties if necessary.

Comments

[Kelly]

We love Picnic too - so nice to have something properly independent in amongst all the chains.

I'm so impressed by the changes to 41 South Street!

As a neighbour to Townsend House I'll be intrigued to see if they can make it in to something useful without having tenants that wake me up in the middle of the night (selfishly. Mariah Carey full blast at 2am is not conducive to a good night's sleep). I'm afraid the Girls Friendly Society is not missed.