The developer's REVISED planning application for the former cinema site at Chapel Arches in Maidenhead should again be REJECTED by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead because: - it would change the existing permitted use from leisure, removing the potential for a major public amenity at this pivotal town centre site. The inclusion of a small café in the revised plans is an improvement on the last submission, but still leaves the vast majority of the proposed building as offices. Maidenhead had a glut of empty offices even before the credit crunch; - approval for a major office block at the site would immediately increase the land value - without assuring any actual development - making it uneconomic to secure the area for an alternative use such as a public open space under the emerging PRoM plans for rejuvenating Maidenhead town centre; - although the proposed floor plans have been scaled back slightly, the building height is unchanged at 4 ½ storeys and would tower over the neighbouring buildings and Chapel Arches area, removing the existing open aspect of the site, crowding and shading the waterway there; - with no reduction in the building height, and only minor changes to the floor plans, the proposal remains an over development of this small but strategic town centre site; - the new landscaping plans improve access to the Green Way cycle and footpath, but exclude any work on the waterway to help realise the PRoM endorsed plans to restore and enlarge York Stream into a recreational waterway for the town.

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