Hundreds of homes approved after tied vote

A plan for 225 homes in Maidenhead has been approved after a council committee's members' votes were tied leaving the chairman with the casting vote.

Developer Taylor Wimpey applied to build the homes to the north of the A404 as part of a second phase of a larger development along Kimbers Lane.

Two councillors on the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead's Maidenhead development management committee voted in favour of the housing scheme but two councillors were opposed.

Chairman Gurch Singh used his casting vote to approve the project on Thursday.

He told the committee that the homes would help to alleviate the "chronic housing issue" in the borough, with 30% of the homes designated as affordable.

The planning application had been deferred in April after councillors said they wanted more information about the quality of trees that will be removed as part of the development work.

The council says all of the trees that will be removed "are generally categorised as low quality trees" and "do not appear high quality specimens".

The authority's officer said housing would need to cause "significant and demonstrable" harm in order to be refused, but that threshold would not be met with this scheme.

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