RESIDENTS of Great Missenden have slammed plans for a housing development because of the disruption it will cause due to not having its site entrance approved.
London-based developer Peker Holding has said its project on the west side of High Street will consist of 36 houses, six flats and one retail shop.
However, the plans have met opposition locally as large construction vehicles will be forced to navigate a narrow alley off the high street to access the site once building work gets underway.
The developer says it has been forced into using this entrance because it has been waiting more than 17 months for Buckinghamshire Council to approve its planning application to send traffic via the nearby Station car park instead.
Residents and businesses are ‘worried’ about construction traffic using the tiny alley, local trader Sue Freeman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
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The 67-year-old said: “I think everybody on the high street is worried. Great Missenden is a sleepy little village. It would be chaos.
“It’s just not suitable for the traffic. Particularly, I don’t know how they would use the alley opposite.”
Sue, who owns the homeware shop Alphabet Soup opposite the alley, said construction vehicles using the tiny street had previously caused disruption in relation to a conversion at the Old Red Lion pub.
She said: “They had to do 52-point turns to get it the right angle to get up. A vehicle there would just not get up.”
The Chair of the Great Missenden Village Association (GMVA) Jill Stiel told the LDRS that she is worried about the impact on local businesses once construction begins and the flow of traffic increases.
She said: “If the builders were to access the site via the high street it would be an absolute nightmare. The High Street is very narrow and HGVs would have to cross the pavement.
“Using this access would undoubtedly result in road closures which will affect our traders. All parties involved need to find a solution which doesn’t involve access from the high street.”
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The GMVA Committee has written four letters to Buckinghamshire Council’s planning department about its concerns.
However, since October 2022, the Council’s planning page about this planning application has not been updated.
The plans were described as dangerous by a woman who gave her name as Bev and works in a local bookshop.
She said: “It would be disastrous, it’s bad enough when the bin lorries come. You’ve got children walking up and down the high street. It will be pretty dangerous.
“Whether it will put people off coming and people wandering up and down the street and popping into shops…”
A spokesman for Peker Holding said: “We are in very constructive dialogue with the Council about additional land for open space – this will unlock the planning application to improve the station approach – and deliver construction access via the station car park.
“We are very keen to avoid using the High Street for construction access and very much hope we can agree a better solution.”
Buckinghamshire Council has been contacted for comment.
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