Loudwater villagers have hit back at plans to turn The Happy Union pub into a 21-room house of multiple occupancy (HMO), suggesting it would ‘increase crime and noise’ and worsen congestion.

The boozer, which sits on the junction of Boundary Road and Treadaway Hill, has been empty and boarded up since its closure in 2020 due to a fall in business accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was bought by London-based firm Veinard Investments in the same year – and a bid to replace it with a three-storey block of flats was rejected by Buckinghamshire Council in 2022 after resistance to the loss of a “community facility” and opposition to a new build that would “detrimentally” impact the village’s appearance.

Undeterred, the company submitted new plans to turn The Happy Union into a 21-room HMO in September, this time suggesting a handful of alterations to facilitate a contribution to “unmet housing need” in the wider High Wycombe area.

Even with little modification to the fabric of the former pub, Loudwater locals haven’t welcomed the news – with several neighbours and a spokesperson for the Chepping Wycombe Parish Council highlighting traffic and safety concerns.

The council representative said the village “has enough problems with lack of parking” that would be exacerbated by the arrival of 21 new residents and questioned whether plans to expand a five-bay parking area into 16 spaces was a realistic notion.

And John Wilson, who lives nearby, said he was worried about the building’s proximity to the Thanestead Copse play area, with “transient and potentially undocumented” HMO dwellers posing a risk to “general safety and cohesion”.

He added: “The pub symbolised a community gathering point. Its conversion into an HMO could further isolate (villagers), reducing the vibrancy of local interaction.”

(Image: NQ)

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Another neighbour, Ron Deamer, struck a similar tone, suggesting that local services were “already struggling to cope with dysfunctional residents”, something that would be “worsened” by the arrival of newbies with “no knowledge of how our community works”.

Meanwhile, S. Peake, who lives slightly further afield in Wooburn Green, said the shared housing unit would be better placed in “a larger town location with good infrastructure”, rather than a small locale like Loudwater, where it amounts to “a totally unsuitable and out of proportion development”.

Adding: “Whether students or asylum seekers, (HMO residents) would potentially increase the amount of antisocial behaviour in the area, (also) increasing crime and noise.”

Planning documents say the proposal was “carefully designed to ensure the change of use would have no adverse impact on the character and appearance of the area” and suggest that the “community facility” argument wheeled out in 2022 no longer applies due to the “considerable time” the pub has sat empty.

They also suggest that “a large number of residents” would be likely to travel via bus, bike or on foot, and that the 16 spaces were a large enough parking area to meet demand while “not leading to additional on-street parking (or) having an unacceptable impact on highway safety”.

If approved, the HMO would comprise 21 rooms spread out across three floors including a roof conversion and seven communal spaces spread out across the levels.