As usual, it has been a busy week in planning Reading as a number of nominations have been submitted and determined.

The most important of these is a resurfacing plan to demolish a house in Southcote and replace it with a single new building containing 11 apartments.

Similar plans for the same house were turned down earlier this year. These developers aren’t the only ones who changed their plans this week.

The owners of a building in Oxford Road have also adapted their plans. The building in question has a checkered history, having served as a brothel and plenty of take-out before this week’s plan to turn the ground floor into apartments.

Elsewhere, owners of a guesthouse in East Reading want to convert it to a Multiple Occupancy House (HMO).

READ MORE: The row continues to rage over Lidl’s controversial new plans

Planning requests were also determined this week – with a church in Reading town center having successfully requested changes to its new major religious center.

You can view the complete plans for each of the applications by typing the planning reference in parentheses into the Reading Borough Council planning portal here: http://planning.reading.gov.uk/fastweb_PL/welcome.asp

From here you can also see a list of validated and decided applications each week.

Replacement of a house with 11 apartments in Southcote (210582)

18 Parkside Road Southcote. Credit: Google Maps

Here, developers Colony Developments want to demolish 18 Parkside Road in Southcote, West Reading and replace it with a new building that will contain 11 apartments.

Planning agents turned down a 12-shot plan for the site in April because they saw it as overdevelopment, with neighbors describing it as “utter horror.”

Three apartments would be on the ground floor and four apartments each would be on the first and second floors of the proposed building.

The street scene for the proposed plan for 18 Parkside Road, Reading. Credit: Colony Architects

The proposal would provide 14 parking spaces, with each apartment allocated one space, one parking space for visitors and two spaces reserved for people with disabilities.

You can see the designs of the plan in the gallery above.

Transformation of a former sex club and restaurant into apartments (211378)

263 Oxford Road, reading. The building has quite a history. Credit: Google Maps

The owners of a building that served as a sex club and then a restaurant have applied to transform the building into apartments.

Harvinder Singh Luthra, the owner, has requested the conversion of the ground floor at 263 Oxford Road, Reading into two studios.

The ground floor can legally be used as a cafe, with HMO apartments upstairs.

READ MORE: Vacant downtown bank could become apartments as cafe plan scrapped

263 Oxford Road has a turbulent history. More recently, it was the home of the Indian restaurant Zafran, but this one has closed. It also housed a take-out pizza and chicken base before moving to new pasture in Wokingham Road.

But the most notorious use of 263 Oxford Road was a brothel called the 263 Club until it was on display and its owners jailed around 2006.

The owner had obtained a building permit to convert the building into a four-apartment hotel with hotel services in December 2020, but their plans have since changed.

Converting a guesthouse in East Reading to HMO (211375)

Brackenhurst Guest House in Wokingham Road, Reading. Credit: Google Maps

Here the owners want to convert Brackenhurst Guest House at Wokingham Road into an HMO.

The guesthouse currently has eight rooms. Now the developers Turner Property Limited want to make it into nine apartments and build a one-story rear extension to the current building.

The rear extension contained in the plans would create a new mixed-use kitchen-dining room, with a common living room located in the main building.

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There would be three bedrooms on the ground floor, with the new occupants having to share a toilet and a shower room with a toilet.

Upstairs, on the first floor, there would be four bedrooms, with new occupants sharing a shower, bathroom and separate WC.

On the second floor, there would be two occupants who would share a shower and toilet.

You can see the proposal floor plans in the gallery above.

Modifications to the new town center parish hall (211147)

Changes to the Greyfriars Church Center at Greyfriars Road in Reading city center. Credit: JBKS Architects

Greyfriars Church has successfully requested changes to its new parish center.

The church got approval to demolish the current church center and replace it with a new and impressive one in March of last year.

However, adaptations to the approved plans were made, involving the change of part of the new building from the glass screen and panels to brick.

Adaptations to the new Greyfriars center were approved subject to the conditions governing the construction of the center. You can see what the center looked like when approved in the gallery above.

Status of store and apartments confirmed at Oxford Road (210238)

466 Oxford Road, reading. Credit: Google Maps

The owner of a property in Oxford Road has successfully received a certificate that the use of the property is legal.

The plaintiff, Antonio Mariano, presented a certificate of lawful use to Reading City Council.

These certificates may be requested by owners to confirm the status of the property in question, in this case 466 Oxford Road.

The property is currently legally used as a hairdressing salon and three apartments. The occupant of the ground floor apartment also has a small garden visible from Chester Street, with the store currently occupied by unisex hair salon Makafui.