Residents of Gerrards Cross have urged their local council to issue a formal apology to the people of the town over a planning application.

It comes after Buckinghamshire Council approved the replacement of a house at 49 Marsham Way, and modifications to the side wall of 10 Marsham Lane.

The proposals were given planning permission despite Gerrards Cross Town Council opposing application PL/23/2708/FA and calling it into Planning Committee in September.

Some residents have criticised the council over a “clerical error” which meant that a Gerrards Cross councillor was unavailable for a meeting with Bucks Council to properly see through its request to call in the planning application.

Residents made their views known to the council during Monday night’s (November 20) Planning Committee meeting and accused the chairman of the Planning Committee Cllr Jaspal Chhokar of a “gross oversight” in a written statement seen by the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

It read: “The lack of due diligence and scrutiny by Cllr Chhokar is particularly worrying and to dismiss public concerns about this oversight, by stating that it was purely a ‘clerical error’, does a great disservice to the residents of Gerrards Cross.”

The statement added: “It would be reasonable to expect that a formal apology would be issued by Gerrards Cross Town Council to the residents affected by the failure to call in this application, and the town council needs to explain what steps they are taking to avoid this oversight happening again.”

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Gerrards Cross Town Council told the LDRS it had already apologised for the clerical error related to the call-in of the application.

Council chairman Brian Peck added: “I can tell you that councillor Chhokar works tirelessly for Gerrards Cross Town Council and should be commended for his work.”

Following Monday’s planning meeting, the council has requested a call-in of a follow-up planning application for 49 Marsham Way submitted earlier this month.

This new proposal, which has already received several objections, seeks to enlarge the design of the garage, which is a variation of condition 14 of the already-approved plans for the site.

Gerrards Cross Town Council told Buckinghamshire Council that the new proposal “should be a full application rather than a variation of condition” as it wrote to the unitary authority to call in the application.

It added: “Gerrards Cross Town Council has an objection to this application on the following grounds: it is an overdevelopment of the site, not in keeping with the conservation area, and is unneighbourly.”