February 15, 2001 9:24: RESIDENTS are furious after councillors gave the green light for the redevelopment of office buildings in a residential street.

South Bucks District Council granted planning permission for the business development in Wattleton Road, Beaconsfield, despite objections from nearby householders and Beaconsfield Town Council.

Residents argued that the proposals, which include several hundred car parking spaces, could seriously affect traffic congestion in the road.

They also felt the office buildings would look out of place and that the asphalting of large areas which slope towards the homes could cause flooding.

Beaconsfield Town Council said the plan "was out of keeping with the area, overbearing and would result in a loss of privacy to neighbouring properties".

However, the proposal was granted detailed planning permission by the district council last week subject to legal agreement relating to site access for the development.

It had already been granted outline permission in the mid-1990s.

Pamela Marshman, who lives in adjacent Butlers Court Road, said: "I think this development is out of keeping with the area.

"It could cause severe traffic problems in Wattleton Road because the amount of car parking allowed is huge."

Beaconsfield town councillor Ann Main (Con, South Ward) said residents were now paying for a bad planning decision made several years ago .

She added: "Are we going to take away green areas which soak up water and keep replacing them with Tarmac which could cause flooding?"

A spokesman for Arjo Wiggins Appleton, the applicant, said: "All we have done is put the detail to the outline permission that was already agreed.

"We needed to do this to keep the planning permission open. There not any plans to carry out this development in the near future.

South Bucks district councillor Pat Burry (Ind, Wexham) said that such planning applications were always difficult to refuse because there were no planning reasons for rejecting them.

Matthew Harris