A High Wycombe pub that is tipped to be turned into flats should become a doctor’s surgery, residents have said.

The Junction pub - on the corner of London Road and Cock Lane - could become nine flats if new plans are given the go-ahead.

The once popular pub was shut down around April last year and has been boarded up ever since after running into financial difficulties.

News of the plans has been met with criticism from some residents, who fear the building’s location – on the corner of the already heavily congested London Road – was unsuitable for more homes.

And some have suggested it could be turned into another doctor’s surgery.

Former Wycombe District councillor Trevor Snaith said: “Cllr Ray Farmer and I fought this last time it was planned for flats and got it reopened as a pub... Anyone want to do it again?

“It could also be suitable for the doctor’s surgery we desperately need.”

Earlier this year, Mr Snaith set up a petition calling for a new state-of-the art health centre to be opened on the old Homebase site on London Road, saying there was a shortage of doctors in the east of High Wycombe.

But campaigners were dealt a blow when the Buckinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group said there were no plans for a new GP in the area.

Another Bucks Free Press reader agreed it could become a doctor’s surgery. AJ Khan said: “Could be used for a GP surgery or even a dental surgery - it is something that is lacking in that side of town. How about a vets?”

Residents living in nearby Marsh Court have also put in an official objection to the plans, citing the loss of a “community asset”.

They wrote: “It has been suggested that a doctor’s surgery would be definitely favourable – much needed locally and a serious asset. Do not let this valuable local, long-standing landmark disappear.”

They added that the proposed flats would be “dangerously situated on the traffic lights” and that the planned new homes would create “additional burden on traffic and congestion along the London Road”.

Cllr Marten Clarke and Cllr Ray Farmer, who both represent the Ryemead ward, have both called for the plans to be ‘called in’ so Wycombe District Council’s planning committee can debate and decide the outcome of the plans.

Cllr Clarke said putting flats on the site of the pub would be an “overdevelopment” of the site and raised concerns about a lack of parking in the area.

Developers say the pub has been marketed since August last year but no serious interest has been received, so plans have now been put forward to change the building into much-needed homes.