A developer has said it will demolish the homes of Wycombe residents who ‘can’t sleep’ as they worry about being evicted.

McCarthy Stone has applied to Buckinghamshire Council for planning permission to knock down Aries House, a block of flats and shops in Flackwell Heath.

The developer plans to replace the building with 40 one and two-bedroom apartments as part of a new ‘retirement community’.

If approved, the new development will also feature a communal garden, five retail units on Straight Bit and 34 car parking spaces, 25 of which would be for residents, with nine for commercial use.

McCarthy Stone’s glossy brochures promise that its proposed retirement homes are ‘sensitively designed’ and ‘appropriate to meet local needs’.

READ MORE: Bourne End: Developer appeals refusal of new homes where trees were ‘massacred’

However, its plans do not mention that the remaining tenants of Aries House are set to be evicted from their flats so that the building they call home can be demolished.

McCarthy Stone confirmed to the Bucks Free Press that three families still living in the flats at the top of Aries House will be turfed out using Section 21 notices – also known as ‘no-fault evictions’.

The notices have not yet been served, but the looming threat of eviction has taken its toll on the residents.

“I am just depressed. It is just awful,” one of them told the Free Press in May before McCarthy Stone had applied for planning permission.

“I can’t sleep,” they added, “It really is affecting my mental health and my husband, and I am sure the neighbours. It is all of us, not just us.”

Another neighbour and longtime resident of Aries House said she was ‘gutted’ at the prospect of her home being destroyed and admitted she may be forced to leave the area entirely as she would not be able to afford to rent other local properties.

Some of the businesses on the ground floor of Aries House also said that they had not been properly informed of the plans for the site and that it would be hard for them to ‘reset’ if they were forced to leave the building.

Meanwhile, opposition to McCarthy Stone’s plans, has also begun grow among the broader community in Flackwell Heath.

Conservative councillor David Johncock summed up the mood in the village, saying ‘there isn’t overwhelming support for this development’.

Writing to the council, he requested that plans for the new retirement community be called into a council planning committee for further scrutiny.

The scale of the proposed development and the ‘lack of adequate parking’ were among the ‘serious concerns’ residents had with the plans, he said.

McCarthy Stone argued that its proposed building, which would be four stories tall at its highest point, was of an ‘appropriate scale’ and would fit in well with neighbouring properties.

On parking, the developer’s own plans acknowledge the ‘limited potential parking provision’ at the site.

However, design documents also point out that buses serve Flackwell Heath and that Bourne End Train Station is close by.

McCarthy Stone also says that its parking plans are ‘adequate’ to meet the ‘projected needs’ of residents.

The proposed parking at the site is one of the main sources of frustration for the residents of Flackwell Heath who have objected to plans for the retirement community in the last few weeks.

In a letter to the council, Dave Rollison of Fennels Way wrote: “If this application is to be allowed, the provisions for parking need to be significantly increased.

“Parking is currently a major problem in the village and the situation will be exacerbated by the current proposals for this site.”

Despite the pushback at its plans, McCarthy Stone claims that the 40-home development ‘would likely free up at least 80 homes’ for people at ‘differing stages of the housing ladder’ in the surrounding area.

But this claim has been dismissed by neighbours including Marilyn Collins, who lives opposite Aries house and has also objected to the plans to knock it down.

She wrote: “The assumption that the development will ‘free up’ starter homes and affordable housing for local people is unrealistic.

“What is very realistic is that this will not free up affordable housing for the families who are the present long-term occupiers of Aries House.”

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