High Wycombe: 14 flats in town centre refused

Bucks Council refused a new planning application (part-retrospective) by Novos Real Estate Ltd for 17-19 Frogmoor (The Galleries), in High Wycombe town centre.

The application detailed ‘an extension to provide 14 flats (six one-bed, eight two-bed), with lower-level car parking, and cycle and bin stores on the ground floor’.

The Galleries

READ MORE: ‘Overbearing’: Plans to flatten property for new homes thrown out

It also detailed the ‘retention of the front elevation with a retail element’.

Up to nine parking spaces and 34 bicycle bays were also proposed.

Works began in October 2018 but are incomplete. Demolition work relating to an earlier scheme has already taken place, documents indicate.

READ MORE: Former garden centre to be flattened for new homes

One objector wrote: “Our courtyard at The Galleries would lose too much light. We are also worried about windows looking into our courtyard affecting our privacy.”

Cllr Lesley Clarke said: “The applicant has already requested an increase in the number of flats in the application which was refused.

“There are no fundamental changes to the request in this application, save it increases the number of flats from 11 to 14.

“The flats are exceptionally small, with hardly any amenity space. Unfortunately, part of this application is retrospective.

“It is overdevelopment in an already overcrowded area.”

“The proposed development fails to provide an adequate means of accessibility, in that a lift is not provided to the upper floors,” the council wrote.

Adding: “The marginal benefit of providing three additional residential units in the town centre does not amount to sufficient positive material considerations to justify a departure from the plan.”

The application was refused on August 18.

We’ve launched a new Facebook group for local news junkies, politics fans and everyone who wants to keep up to date with the latest issues affecting High Wycombe. Please join the conversation over at Buckinghamshire Politics