High Wycombe: Eight-bed shared house plan refused

Buckinghamshire Council’s West Buckinghamshire Planning committee rejected the plan at 114 Deeds Grove in High Wycombe on Tuesday evening (September 15).

The owner already has a certificate of lawfulness to change the home into a six-bed House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) but was seeking to instead increase that and turn into a eight-bed shared house.

As well as overdevelopment, concern was raised over the impact of parking from the extra tenants.

Residents have previously complained to the Bucks Free Press about “nightmare” double parking on the road and vehicles blocking pavements.

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Two on-street parking spaces would have been lost under the plans and councillor Sarfaraz Raja described the current parking situation on te road as “horrendous”.

Councillor Lesley Clarke, speaking on behalf of residents, said the parking is already “absolutely abysmal” and the HMO would be “unacceptable overdevelopment”.

She added: “If we are going to provide proper housing to the residents of High Wycombe it has to be high quality.”

Councillor Alan Hill added: “There isn’t sufficient parking for the area. This is very much overdevelopment and a sad loss of a much-needed family home.

“We are getting more and more flats and HMOs.”

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He also raised concerns about drivers speeding on Deeds Grove “thinking its Silverstone”.

Members of the committee unanimously rejected the plan, calling it an “over-intensification” of the site and “way over the top”.

Councillor Chris Whitehead concluded: “This does not improve the environment for our residents.

“It makes the lives of the other people on the street more difficult purely through parking.

“This site is overdeveloped in a street of three-bed semis.

“I cannot see how officers have recommended we approve this one.”