People in High Wycombe have reacted to the plans to create 181 new homes at Kingsmead Business Park.

Buckinghamshire Council gave its prior approval to the plans to convert the five office blocks at the site into housing earlier this month.

Applicant PJK Mead Ltd said it will create 26 apartments at Hampden Court, 45 at Buckingham Court, 53 at Windsor Court, 34 at Oakley Court and 23 at Aston Court.

Jansons Property, one of the firms behind the planning application recently announced that it had acquired the business park as part of a multimillion-pound deal.

The commercial hub is currently home to several large business such as Veolia, Stantec and Regus, as well as the Red Kite housing association and the High Wycombe Driving Test Centre.

Stantec employee Gemma King said she thought that the right turn into the site could impact traffic on London Road once the offices were converted into flats and thought her firm might move away from Loudwater to High Wycombe town centre.

She said: “That will just be different. I live in Marlow, and I drop my kid at school, so it is slightly closer to come this way.

“But then if we are over there it is easier to get lunch and it is actually closer to my house to go back from there.”

Meanwhile, a member of staff at Veolia based at the business park said he was not aware of any plans for the firm to relocate from the site or the expected timeline for the new flats.

He said: “All I have been told is that some new people have bought the land and are going to turn it into flats.

“I assume they will turn everything into flats, so I assume we will have to find somewhere. Because I am local to here, it is quite easy to get into work.”

Nathan Thomas, the Buckinghamshire Councillor for Tylers Green and Loudwater has also had his say on the use of the business park for new flats.

He welcomed the developers not trying to build on a greenbelt site and asked that it keep the community up to date on its plans.

He said: “It is encouraging to see brownfield sites being explored first for future housing options.

“I urge the applicant to engage fully with the businesses and tenants of the building on the plans and next steps following approval being granted. I hope the applicant will consult the wider community about the site future and next steps.”

Andy Garnett, the vice chair of Chiltern Chamber of Commerce, said that plans changing employment sites to residential use would be ‘coming through thick and fast’ over the next few years.

He said: “Buckinghamshire Council will need to declare its housing commitment over the term of this new parliament.

“The Kingsmead site has large units that are not currently in market demand. We have a conundrum of providing employment space as opposed to workspace.

“Our future entrepreneurs can quite effectively work from their accommodation from a residential space rather than having the significant overhead of an employment site.”