Councillors voted almost unanimously in favour of a controversial development that will see workshops and garages demolished and replaced with an office building and houses in Beaconsfield last night.

Existing garages at the rear of 36 to 56 London End - known as the Merritt’s Garage site - will be torn down and replaced with a terrace of four houses and an office building after only one councillor on South Bucks District Council’s planning committee voted against the plans.

The application was submitted by Burnham Nominees Ltd in October – five months after a ‘virtually identical’ application was refused on highway grounds - but Tim Thurley, of Bucks County Council Highways team, said the applicants had since “addressed their concerns” and were no longer objecting to the plans.

While the access road to the site is not wide enough for two-way traffic, causing concerns for residents about the safety of pedestrians using Millbarn Medical Centre, the applicant has attempted to alleviate their concerns by creating a one-way system, with a barrier at the entrance and a rising bollard at the exit.

Mr Aspinall, a Beaconsfield resident of 40 years, spoke at the meeting to object to the application on behalf of the Beaconsfield Society and Beaconsfield Old Town Residents Association (BOTRA).

He said that while there were a total of 29 different objections to the plans from residents, traffic, parking and an ‘excess’ of offices in the Old Town were the main issues.

He said: “Despite minor changes made in the application there are still huge concerns in the community about traffic flow and pedestrian safety. There will still be a need for dozens of cars to cross the busy A40 at a peak traffic time to get into the very narrow road by the medical centre.

“This very restricted passage must also provide for pedestrians going to the surgery or to the offices. At the other end of the site, there would be traffic running over a designated footpath. This is not safe for pedestrians who use this path, particularly children.”

He also said parking in the Old Town was already a “dire situation” and workers in the new office would be forced to park outside of the site because of a lack of spaces.

He said: “The reality is that by 9am every parking space in the Old Town is taken up by staff in the existing offices who leave their cars there until 5pm every day.

“The application should be refused until it provides parking for all workers in the building, not thrusting more cars out into Old Beaconsfield.”

Urging the committee to reject the application, Mr Aspinall said the community groups agreed the site needed development, but would have preferred to have seen more affordable housing.

Patrick Gurner, highways consultant and Beaconsfield resident who spoke on behalf of the applicant, said they had accepted that the previous application had focused on design and that “more information could have been provided on highways and parking.”

Mr Gurner said he has since carried out “extensive surveys” at the site across seven days to monitor pedestrian and traffic movements and had met with Millbarn Medical Centre and the owner of The Swan pub to address concerns.

He said: “We intend working with the medical centre, the Swan and the local councillors during the implementation process to ensure the medical centre has safe and unimpeded access to staff and visitors and we will also give a short presentation to BOTRA.”

Plans for a loading bay outside The Swan pub were also a cause of concern for Cllr Alan Walters, a district councillor for Beaconsfield, who said two “valuable” parking spaces would be lost.

The committee voted to approve the plans, as long as a Construction Traffic Management Plan was carried out to look at pedestrian safety, the potential for a loading bay inside the site instead of on London End is considered and landscaping around the exit point of the site is removed to prevent any obstructions.