FRESH plans to overhaul a nightclub built within the Green Belt have been revealed.
Kebbell Development Ltd has submitted to Bucks Council plans to redevelop the site of Winkers Nightclub in Chalfont St Peter, to provide 14 new properties in six buildings (four affordable).
As well as the nightclub building itself, the scheme covers ancillary buildings and the parking area.
READ MORE: Fresh plans to build 50 homes on High Wycombe site
In 2019, Kebbell was given permission to build eight homes on site. Then, in 2020, it put forward plans for 18 properties.
Another scheme approved in 2015 was for four detached properties.
READ MORE: Film studio expansion will bring £500m – but also ‘undermine hopes of generations’
Under the revised scheme, Units 1 and 2 of the 14 properties would be in a two-storey, semi-detached farmhouse design, with three bedrooms each, private gardens and three parking spaces each.
Units 3 and 4 would be similar, only with two bedrooms, gardens and two parking spaces each.
Units 5 and 6 would be almost identical to Units 1 and 2 – as would Units 7, 8, 9 and 10 only minus the farmhouse design.
While Units 11, 12, 13 and 14 would be in a two-storey building with a mix of bedrooms, outdoor areas, and two parking spaces each.
The new scheme will also retain the existing two accesses on Denham Lane to the site, which remains in use as a nightclub.
Chalfont St Peter Parish Council strongly objected to the scheme, citing local affordable housing needs, a ‘greatly exceeded footprint’, no adequate assessment of impact on the Green Belt, poor accessibility, and ‘failure to demonstrate Very Special Circumstances’.
Cllr Jonathan Rush said: “I would like to call in Winkers irrespective of the case officer’s recommendation. Major development in Green Belt would benefit from public scrutiny.”
“Following extensive negotiation with the applicant, the revised application is considered to be acceptable and is recommended for approval,” a document states.
“Specifically, the development complies with the exception to inappropriate development in the Green Belt…in that it would ‘not cause substantial harm to the openness of the Green Belt, where the development would re-use previously developed land and contribute to meeting an identified affordable housing need within the area of the local planning authority’.”
The recommendation is to approve, subject to conditions.
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 Chalfont St Peter. Please join the conversation over at Buckinghamshire Politics
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here