259 new homes coming to villages despite 300 objections

A development of 259 homes in two Buckinghamshire villages has been approved, despite huge opposition to the plans.

Developer Bellway was given planning permission for the site in between Hazlemere and Holmer Green after members of the Strategic Sites Committee accepted the planning officer’s recommendation for approval by a majority of eight to one.

Proposals include the demolition of existing buildings on the site between Tralee and Orchard End Farms and at the rear of 22 Badger Way, Amersham Road.

Vehicle access for the site will be created off A404 Amersham Road, while there is also set to be two additional emergency vehicle accesses controlled by bollards.

Plans also include the creation of 2.83ha of open public space, a games area, a play area, and the retention of woodland in the southern corner of the site.

A total of 30 neighbours submitted letters of support for the application, however, 296 people – including the Liberal Democrat MP for Chesham and Amersham Sarah Green – have objected to the plans, which have been called into Committee by councillors.

Reasons for objections to the plans include concerns about ‘urban sprawl’, disagreement with the removal of the site from the Green Belt, and overdevelopment of the area, especially considering the approved neighbouring development of 87 new homes by Hawridge Strategic Land Ltd.

The proposed site has a complex planning history, with the planning inspector previously throwing out an appeal against a decision to refuse planning permission for the development of 101 homes.

Councillors Catherine Oliver and Ed Gemmell, who represent Hazlemere ward, and both called in the application, told the Committee the plan should be refused for a variety of different reasons.

Cllr Oliver compared the straight lines of the architectural plans for the site to an army barracks, despite Bellway saying it had tried to create its plan in line with the existing architecture in Hazlemere.

She said: “I don’t know anywhere in Hazlemere that has got a straight road… This gives me the vision of an army camp.”

The councillor also raised road safety concerns, adding: “Everybody who lives on this development will be car reliant. It does not integrate into Hazlemere at all.

“If we kid ourselves that people are going to use A404 to walk or cycle to the shops or to the schools, you must be mad.

“If anybody has walked along there that close in a 40 and 50mph zone with no protection… You wouldn’t take your kids down there.”

Cllr Gemmell told the Committee that Bellway’s plan would generate £130 million in revenue, based on a rough average house price of £500,000 in Hazlemere.

The councillor also told members that environmental issues had not been properly considered for the plan, while the planting of trees at the site had not fully been thought through.

He said: “In the pictures we saw of the rows, we have just got literally trees slapped down, absolutely taking no account of where they are being put in relation to the windows behind or the buildings.”