Will guiding philosophical principles decide what gets built at Newbury’s Kennet Shopping centre?

It’s not often we can use guiding principles of philosophical logic in stories about Newbury.

But we have a good example of Occam’s Razor emerging with the two proposals on the table to redevelop the Kennet Shopping centre.

The principle exhorts us to keep things as simple as possible – so using that principle rather than any personal preference for styles of architecture, the more ‘simple’ idea might win the day.

Occam’s Razor is a principle often attributed to 14th-century friar William of Ockham that says that if you have two competing ideas to explain the same phenomenon, you should prefer the simpler one.

So, in effect, two huge, yet completely different developments for the site are now on the table.

Either with the council or the Government to decide.

One is a development of 427 units in blocks.

The other is an almost whimsical opposite of 317 individually-designed mews houses.

It’s an interesting gambit from developer Lochalilort, which had tried, and failed, three times to get the multi-storey solution through the council.

West Berkshire has new housing targets, and the Government wants more homes built on sustainable sites – which might see the Government lean towards a yes for the so-called Eagle Quarter.

So the rejected scheme – on grounds of it ruining the character of Newbury – might end up coming to fruition anyway, with a bill for the appeal being sent to the council, and funded by the tax payer.

“We have appealed this scheme as we believe that this scheme has merit, it was ‘strongly recommended’ for approval as it conformed to both centre Government and West Berkshire’s adopted planning policies,” said Lochailort director Hugo Haig, who won’t be drawn on which scheme he prefers.

Nor would he give out on potential build costs for the more ‘upmarket’ and therefore more expensive mews development.

Conservationists had battled against that one, despite consequential proposals reducing the height of the blocks, and adding in more ‘heritage’ features in the architecture.

Councillors said the scheme – called Eagle Quarter – would present an “over powering and dominant feature”.

But the council could be caught between a rock and a hard place if the Government manages to get its decision in before the council does.