High Wycombe: 35 new flats on Princes Gate

Bucks Council has permitted a revised scheme submitted by Eaglefield Limited, in Northwood, for the former JC and MP Smith site, on Princes Gate, in High Wycombe.

Plans detail the ‘erection of one three-bed, 21 two-bed and 13 one-bed self-contained apartments’ – 35 in total.

Old JC and MP Smith factory 

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A new vehicle access and 36 “lower ground area” parking spaces are also proposed.

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The site has a complex planning history.

An application for 32 flats was refused in 2013.

A different application for 32 flats was approved in 2015, but proved “impossible to construct, due to significant defects” in the plans.

Another application for 35 flats was withdrawn in 2018.

And yet another for 39 flats was submitted in 2019, but council feedback ‘prompted amendments, including a reduction in the number of units, and alterations to the design’.

The new flats

Several objectors raised concerns.

One said: “I do not believe that fair due process has been carried out in respect of the above, as we have not been fairly informed of the revised planning application.

“I am not aware the extent to which neighbouring properties have been notified but clearly this has been insufficient.

“We strongly object to the above specific plans, primarily based on the size and inadequate parking.”

They also mentioned its ‘very imposing height’, “increased traffic”, and ‘neighbour privacy’.

Permission was granted on September 1.

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