Haslams’ Partner Steven Smith was invited recently by BBC Radio Berkshire to provide live on air an expert opinion on the redevelopment prospects and value of this important Reading site which the vendor, The Ministry of Justice is proposing to sell on the open market. This follows the decommissioning of the prison at the end of last year.
The local radio station was doing a special show centred on both the history and future of the prison. Steven said the three acre plus site “…was on its face a prime development site worth a fortune but the reality might be the opposite”. He highlighted the many planning issues and other obstacles that needed to be overcome before anyone could forecast accurately its most likely future use and from that its valuation. Steven pointed to the fact the main building was a Listed Building, the whole site shows up on English Heritage’s Schedule of Ancient Monuments; and that the Local Planning Authority is desirous of seeing some sort of community use introduced onto the site.
Other uses identified in the adopted Local Plan were commercial, hotel or residential but it was Steven’s view that the “…layout and character of the main building, which cannot be demolished, meant that it would not be easy and certainly very costly to undertake a change of use that would be commercially viable and still pay respects to the site’s historic past and the adjacent Abbey Ruins”.
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Steven Smith
BSc (Est Man) FRICS FCI Arb FCABE