Buckinghamshire Council has welcomed the decision to refuse planning permission for the development of 101 homes.

A ruling by the planning inspector dismissed an appeal and refused planning permission for the development at the Tralee Farm site in Hazlemere.

The council's five-day planning inquiry took place at the beginning of October to decide whether the plans should go ahead.

However, Buckinghamshire Council decided to refuse planning permission on December 2 due to a "failure to meet key design principles required to achieve high-quality sustainable development".

The inspector ruled that the council had acted reasonably in making its initial decision not to support the application for the reason that it did not align with the desire to have a cohesive development at the 12.87acre site.

The council also said that the scheme did not achieve the necessary sense of separation between the areas of Hazlemere and Holmer Green as required by the Policy.

The application for 101 homes was submitted by Inland Homes on the northern part of the site in Hazlemere in Wycombe Road – directly behind Dean Way.

A separate application for 290 homes on the southern part  between Tralee Farm and Orchard End Farm of the plot has been submitted by Bellway Homes

The area of land was allocated for housing development in the 2019 Wycombe District Local Plan and the council is seeking to ensure any building on the site is in line with its vision for a unified development, in keeping with the terms of its planning policy.

Peter Strachan, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration, said: “The council is committed to using this land to create much needed housing for the local area but will only accept applications that are in accordance with our planning policy. It is key that all developers are mindful of this.

“I hope that this decision will help to reiterate the importance of ensuring that schemes submitted by landowners must meet the requirements of our policy. I look forward to the developers aligning their proposals to bring forward a comprehensive plan across the whole of this site so we can move onwards with the development.”

This news delighted residents of Holmer Green and Hazlmere, who feared the development would have detrimental impact on services, including an "already stretched doctor's surgery".

Simon Jones, Chair of the Holmer Green Village Society, said: "The residents are not opposed to development in general but this application was so clearly going to affect Holmer Green that the whole community came together to oppose it. Whilst the judgement outlined issues relating to the comprehensive development brief and the issues surrounding the closeness of the development to Holmer Green, we were sure that the coordinated opposition from all groups in Holmer Green and Hazlemere had a contributory effect on the outcome."

Susan Jamson, whose garden backs on to the farmland, feels very happy that the plans have been refused.

She told the BFP: "The idea of building huge estates in Hazlemere that will join together the villages of Holmer Green and Hazlemere is ridiculous!

"Our roads are already jam packed, we have no school places, we don’t have a doctors surgery near. So any new residents will have to register in schools and doctors outside of the area creating even more cars on our roads.

"This was green belt that the Council downgraded in their quest to build across Hazlemere.  Our villages cannot take this amount of housing and it was so wrong to."