Starbucks withdraws plans to build Bucks café

These are a few of the many applications submitted to Buckinghamshire Council in the past seven days.

To view more details for each application, go to the respective council’s planning portal with the reference number attached.

Plans to demolish existing home for flats refused at 108 Chairborough Road, High Wycombe (22/05118/FUL).

A developer wanted to bulldoze a single three-bed home to build four two-bedroom flats. The site already has planning approval for four one-bedroom apartments.

The applicant said they have kept this scheme the same height as the previously approved scheme and have designed the building to be in keeping with the surrounding properties.

READ MORE: Construction firms 'colluded to rig bids for demolition contracts'

But council planning bosses refused the scheme, believing the development would result in a ‘visually dominating and incongruous built form,’ which would ‘unduly harm’ the character and appearance of the area.

The building not having a communal lift and fears of it overshadowing and overlooking its neighbour also prompted officers to reject the plans.

Starbucks withdraws plans to build a new café with a drive-thru on land off Sir Henry Lee Crescent, Berryfields (21/00921/APP).

The large American coffee shop wanted to set up shop and provide a drive-thru and car parking of 19 spaces to serve Aylesbury residents and motorists.

The proposed building would have been single-storey with a mono-pitched roof. To the front and centre of the roof, a decorative clay brick slip fin will be provided which would also incorporate the Starbucks signage.

Planners say it will create jobs for local people and be a ‘complimentary addition’ to the area.

However, Starbucks withdrew the scheme without a reason why. A revised planning application could be submitted in the future.

READ MORE: Hazlemere pavement parking outside new Tesco Express

A developer wants to demolish existing buildings for three homes at Hill Farm Industrial Estate, Farm Lane, Chalfront St Giles (PL/22/1491/FA).

Plans were submitted for three detached properties to be built at the estate. The proposals seek to improve on a previously approved scheme for three homes on the same site.

The estate has been used as commercial since 1987 and was used as agricultural pre-1950s.

The developer redesigned the homes to make it more ‘sensitive’ to the area and improve the quality of architecture and landscaping for the site and the area within which it sits.

They also wanted to make the homes sustainable. This includes fabric first low-energy timber construction and high levels of insulation and airtightness along with the use of sustainable technology. Air source heat pumps and biodigester waste treatment units.