RBWM planning round-up: Legoland Windsor attraction to be demolished and redeveloped

These are the latest planning applications for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Approved: Windsor’s Legoland Viking River Splash will be demolished after the council approved the plans.

The ride closed down in 2023 and will soon be knocked down and redeveloped into a new attraction.

Merlin Attractions Operations put forward the demolition plans, with proposals for the new ride to be submitted in ‘due course’, according to application documents.

To view the full plans, insert 26/00362 into rbwm.gov.uk

Approved: An office building in a Maidenhead business park will be extended to make way for 18 flats after the council approved the plans.

Emeraldcrown Ltd, the applicant, is looking to build an additional storey onto an office building in Vanwall Business Park.

The park is a protected employment site in the Borough Local Plan (BLP), but in August 2024, the council approved a set of plans to turn the Id building in the business park into 53 apartments.

The work to convert the office building into flats has not started, according to the application documents.

Now, a bid was put forward to add a third floor to the building, which would make way for 18 more flats – taking the total number of flats to 71.

A mix of studios and one- and two-bed flats are planned.

The site has an existing car park for around 140 vehicles, which would be retained, with a refuse and cycle store to be included.

To view the full plans, insert 26/00095 into rbwm.gov.uk

Refused: The council has turned down proposals for up to nine homes in Bray’s greenbelt.

Shanly Homes submitted plans looking to extend one of its housing developments in Oakley Gardens and add more family homes on site.

The 12-home cul-de-sac currently on site is accessed off Windsor Road and was approved at appeal in 2012.

Now, the developer wanted to get permission ‘in principle’ to add up to nine homes to the cul-de-sac as a ‘logical rounding-off’ of the existing development, application documents said.

Although the site falls within the borough’s greenbelt, Shanly Homes said ‘very special circumstances’ apply which would make the land grey belt.

Grey belt is land which, for example, does not significantly contribute to the greenbelt, has been previously developed on or sits on the edge of existing settlements or roads.

But Bray Parish Council recommended the plans for refusal and said the proposed homes would place pressure on the ‘already overloaded’ A308 Windsor Road.

Other residents also lodged their objections against the plans and said the area floods regularly, with mature trees and vegetation near to the site previously being removed.

One comment said: “[The trees] were the homes to all sorts of wildlife, not to mention nesting birds and bats.”

A resident said the additional houses would be ‘a significant and unsustainable intensification’ of the area.

The Royal Borough rejected the plans and said it was a ‘cramped’ development, with usable car parking spaces not being provided.

Planning officers also considered the scheme to be ‘inappropriate’ in the greenbelt, causing harm to the local character.

To view the full plans, insert 26/00221 into rbwm.gov.uk