A Wycombe councillor has been refused planning permission for new flats that were dubbed a ‘Hobbit’ home.

Arif Hussain, the Conservative member for Terriers and Amersham Hill, applied for outline permission for his plan to demolish the property at 259 West Wycombe Road earlier this year.

The cabinet member for communities said he wanted to replace the existing two-storey property with a three-storey building comprising two one-bedroom and four two-bedroom flats.

The six new apartments would have been served by eight parking spaces, as well as and bin cycle stores.

However, councillors on a council planning committee voted for planning officers’ recommendation to refuse permission for the new flats.

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Officers claimed that the flats would be a ‘dominant and disproportionate form of development that would fail to integrate into its surroundings’.

They also said ‘insufficient’ information had been provided to show that the proposed development could achieve a ‘net gain in biodiversity’.

Cllr Paul Turner told the meeting: “When you look at the first floor it is level with the road, therefore the ground floor is subterranean with very little view at the front.

“It would be like the Hobbit. The whole design of this is like ‘let us see what we can squeeze in as much as possible’ without thinking about the amenity of anyone that is going to live there in the future.”

Cllr Hussain’s application was called into the planning committee to be determined due to him being an elected member of the council.

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