COUNCIL: The applicant has demonstrated very special circumstances sufficient to outweigh the harm At the time it was considered there was “an essential need” for a full-time worker to live on site “to meet the welfare requirements of the poultry”. Expansion of the farm to incorporate quail has also been established in a recent appeal. That need remains and a new, permanent home is “justified” despite it being an “inappropriate development in the Green Belt”, according to council documents. “The applicant has demonstrated very special circumstances sufficient to outweigh the harm,” a council officer wrote. However, its location, beyond the edge of the settlement, is “harmful to the Green Belt”, they added.
PLANS to demolish one property in favour of a new apartment block have been thrown out. Aquinna Homes was refused an application to tear down a two-storey, detached property on North Park, in Chalfont St Peter, in favour of a three-storey block of five two-bed apartments.
PICTURED: The proposed site on North Park, in Chalfont St Peter The new build would have featured rear balconies, 10 parking spaces and a communal rear garden. Initial objections were on grounds of “overlooking” and inadequate parking. Council officers conceded the build would be “harmful to the character of the area” and that of neighbours.
Of those properties, 40 would be affordable (11 affordable rent; 29 shared ownership). However, some 79 affordable homes are proposed overall, as is a financial contribution of more than £3 million to health, education and transport services. As part of phase one and two, Inland Homes will demolish 40 houses on land adjacent to Maude Road to make way for the relief road; create walking and cycle routes via Minerva Way; and use land near Dupre Crescent and south of Gorrell Road for the 147 properties. The new homes will consist of one, two, three, four and five-bedroom houses and apartments. Council documents mention a majority of two-story properties in detached, semi-detached and terraced forms, but that six ‘three and four-storey apartments would act as a gateway to the site’.