Red Kite has said it plans to build new housing in Princes Risborough after 26 garages have been demolished.

The housing association has proposed five two-storey semi-detached homes to replace the disused garage site at the top of Clifford Road, just around the corner from the Red Kite flats at Gatensbury Place.

Designed for four people, each of the new ‘affordable rental’ properties will have two parking spaces, with the five homes to share four visitor bays.

Access to the site will be from Clifford Road, according to the plans Red Kite submitted to Buckinghamshire Council for approval last month.

The new properties will also each have their own garden, secure cycle storage and separate kitchen and living areas.

In its application, Red Kite claimed that the plans were ‘appropriate’ because the complied with local and national planning policy and ‘fit’ well with existing properties without causing them ‘detrimental impact.

The housing association, which owns and manage more than 6,500 homes in the Wycombe district, also said its proposed new homes assisted in meeting demand for affordable housing and helped ‘activate’ a brownfield site.

The existing site of the 26 former garage units and hardstanding have been ‘redundant’ for several years.

Red Kite’s plans read: “The site has not been maintained for a significant period of time and large areas of its shared boundaries, to the south and east, are defined by overgrown scrub and metal wire fencing.

“Boundaries to the north are made up of 2m high timber fence and brick walls separating it from neighbours to Merton Road.”

The applicant has proposed to build the new properties out of historic brick, which is ‘visible throughout the area’.

The design section of Red Kite’s plans reads: “Carefully considered landscape and street design will encourage the use of materials that reflect an access hierarchy that is legible in all instances and clearly distinguishes between changes in use and access priority.

“Our proposals will advocate the use of local suppliers and merchants, contractors, and manufacturers wherever this is practicable. In doing so, the development and its immediate impact on the environment in terms of carbon footprint will be reduced.”

Red Kite’s latest planning application to the council comes after officers at the unitary authority refused to grant the organisation permission for another set of new homes in Gayhurst Road, High Wycombe last month.

Planners said the three two-storey properties proposed were not accompanied by adequate flood risk information, while a string of residents also lodged objections to the plans over concerns that the new houses would exacerbate the area’s existing shortage of parking space.