Plan for 1,500 homes on Maidenhead golf course submitted

Developer Cala Homes has submitted its plan to build 1,500 homes on Maidenhead Golf Club this month.

The massive project would also involve building both a primary and a secondary school on the golf course site, which is near the town centre and to the south of Maidenhead train station.

The estate created by the development would be called ‘the Elizabeth Quarter’, which would have its own local centre to support future occupants containing small-scale shops, a cafe and other amenities.

The submission of the plan comes as Cala Homes revised the amount of homes in the scheme down from the 2,000 originally envisaged.

Although the golf course is identified as a site for 2,000 homes in the Royal Borough Local Plan which was adopted in 2022, the developers have scaled back the number of homes involved twice.

A plan for 1,800 homes was floated last February, with the amount of homes being applied for being further reduced after engaging with the public and the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead council (RBWM).

READ MORE: Maidenhead golf course homes plan sees major changes as project is scaled back

The developers’ planning agents Iceni Projects acknowledged changes made to the project.

The Iceni agent wrote: “Work and feedback has seen the scheme from a starting point of up to 2,000 dwellings, reduce to 1,800 dwellings and finally be refined so as to result in the submitted scheme of 1,500 dwellings to address key site constraints, deliver a design that responds to the surrounding context in terms of height in particular and deliver over a third of the site as open space in response to the feedback received.”

While Cala Homes will be in charge of the housebuilding if approved, the Elizabeth Quarter project is a joint venture with the RBWM Property Company Ltd, which is wholly owned by the borough council.

A phasing plan for the 1,500 home Elizabeth Quarter development at Maidenhead Golf Club. The schools would be delivered last. Credit: LDA Design

A document written by Iceni Projects states the possibility of homes being built on the golf course has been in the works since 2014, when the course was identified as a site in the Green Belt which could be allocated for development.

The golf course was duly identified as a site for housing in the RBWM Local Plan adopted in 2022.

It is unclear where members of the Maidenhead Golf Club will play the sport if the Elizabeth Quarter project is given the go-ahead. It has previously been reported that Maidenhead Golf Club could relocate to Winter Hill golf course in Cookham.

The project is so large that the plan has been submitted as an outline, with further applications providing details of the phases of the project expected.

You can view the application by typing reference 24/00091/OUT into the RBWM planning portal.