Chalfont St Giles homes plan at Bucks farm refused

This is just one of the applications submitted to Buckinghamshire Council in the past seven days.

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

Plans to demolish a health care building for new homes submitted at Harlow Road, High Wycombe (22/08020/FUL).

A developer wants to demolish Harlow House, which was used as an office and therapy base for mental health services, and build seven three-bed houses.

The site was vacated by the NHS Trust at the onset of the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in March 2020 and moved to a new re-purposed centre in Easton Street known as Saffron House.

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The homes are proposed to be 2.5-storeys in height with a bedroom and ensuite on the second floor.

Developer Property Matters Ltd, who have a contract with the current owners, the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, stated: “This proposal is the sensitive redevelopment of a brownfield site in a sustainable location for much-needed family housing in a high-quality scheme that has been carefully designed to respect the local context and adjacent conservation area.”

Huge redevelopment plans refused at Gorelands Lane, Chalfont St Giles (PL/21/4820/FA).

The applicant, D Croft Transport Ltd, has seen a big blow to their scheme that would have flattened much of the Model Farm’s existing site for 38 homes, 14 of which would have been affordable.

The site currently consists of Chalfont Shire Centre, Chiltern Equine Clinic, three residential properties and a car repair centre.

D Croft Transport Ltd wanted to convert the Shire Centre and Equine Clinic into 20 new properties, and to erect 18 apartments once the current residential ones are pulled down.

It planned for 12 two-storey properties at the Shire Centre, comprising two, three and four-bedroom units; eight two, three and four-bedroom units at the Equine Clinic; and 18 one and two-bedroom units within a maximum three-storey build after existing residential properties are demolished.

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The car service yard would have also been removed and landscaped. Some 83 parking spaces are planned, as are private and shared outdoor areas.

But the plans were met with heavy resistance from residents and the parish council for being ‘dominant and intrusive’.

Planning officers refused the scheme, believing the site would be too heavily reliant on private cars, resulting in unsustainable development.

They also believed the size of the homes and the private gardens are too small which could result in unsatisfactory living environments. A lack of a legal agreement to deliver affordable housing was another reason for refusal.

A twenty-metre 5G mast will be erected at Knaves Beech Way, Loudwater (22/07701/PNP16A).

Telecommunications company CK Hutchinson secured prior approval permission, which effectively bypasses the planning process to speed up development, from Bucks Council.

It proposed to erect a 20m monopole with six antennas, two cabinets, and one electric meter cabinet on land adjacent to the BT Cellnet Telecom in Knaves Beech Industrial Estate.

This is part of the mass rollout of 5G connectivity across the UK to provide better WIFI and phone signals.