Public notices: Retailer's move to former Maidenhead Barclays in the works

Planning applications for Maidenhead High Street, a Cox Green manor house and a Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray are in this week’s public notices.

The Works is looking to move into the vacated bank premises of the former Barclays.

The discount retailer is currently based in the Nicholsons Shopping Centre and sells books, art and craft materials, gifts, toys, games and stationery.

The plans involve changing the ground floor and removing the existing shopfront at 92 High Street.

The proposal seeks to convert the former retail banking unit for retail use, accompanied by a replacement shopfront, new signage and a new residential access.

Barclays on Maidenhead High Street closed in April 2024, following a decline in visits to the branch.

Customers are currently served at a Barclays POD inside the Nicholsons Shopping Centre, located near the existing unit for The Works.

Areli, the developer behind the Nicholson Quarter development, issued a letter to shopkeepers in the Nicholsons Shopping Centre earlier this month, warning of the imminent development.

The letter said Nicholsons Shopping Centre would soon be vacated ‘ahead of its closure in the first half of 2026’ and ‘formal notices are now being served’.

The Nicholsons Shopping Centre would be demolished and replaced with a mixed-use scheme including flats, shops and offices.

A planning application has been submitted to upgrade the existing gates and adjacent fencing for an entrance to the gate lodge at Ockwells Manor in Cox Green.

The owners of the Grade I listed 15th-century manor house want to modify the current gate to the estate to provide wider access for larger vehicles turning into the site.

The existing fencing on each side of the gate is proposed to be replaced with chestnut palings to improve the security of the perimeter alongside Ockwells Road.

The property is accessed via two private drives.

Gate A, adjacent to Gate Lodge, provides access to the stable blocks and barns, and the mouth of the driveway is wide enough to accommodate the new gate.

The Roux Waterside Limited management team has applied to ‘regularise’ an original temporary use with a retrospective permanent change of use at the two-storey property known as Tanners.

Retrospective permission is sought for residential use, ancillary offices, workshop and storage uses in connection with the operation of The Waterside Inn on Ferry Road.

The proposed use has been in operation for the last 36 months, having originally been considered as a temporary situation.

The combination of uses has become essential to the successful and efficient operation of The Waterside Inn and culinary school, and the applicant now seeks to ‘retrospectively regularise this change of use’.

This application follows an earlier application, which was refused in June, because it sought to remove the residential use entirely.

The new application seeks to retain a self-contained residential use within the property, with direct access to the private garden and a defined parking space at the front door, whilst regularising the temporary Class E use.