Builders have started work on a £17 million town centre home for disabled ex-servicemen and women.

The four-storey 75-bed residential home is being built as part of the Hughenden Quarter development, with construction underway after the old CompAir Broomwade site was cleared.

The Royal Star & Garter Homes building will have a number of communal areas for residents, including a bar, hairdressers and physiotherapy and meeting rooms.

The development is one of three new builds the charity has started in the UK in the last eight years, with town dignitaries saying they are “thrilled” High Wycombe was selected for the latest project.

Wycombe District Council chairman, Cllr Ian McEnnis said: “It’s great that The Royal Star & Garter Homes have chosen High Wycombe as one of the three places to provide their specialist care.

“I’m thrilled to see work starting here to put life back into the town, transforming what was a derelict site into a space for people to live.”

Cllr McEnnis was joined at the ‘Ground Breaking Ceremony’ earlier this month by a former RAF fighter pilot who is hoping to call the High Wycombe development his home when work finished around the end of 2017.

Anthony ‘Bugs’ Bendell said: “Opening The Royal Star & Garter Home in High Wycombe will be a great advantage to the military veterans in South Buckinghamshire and the wider area, including Berkshire and Oxfordshire.”

Each room in the large development – which will built next to a new 350-home retirement village – will have ensuite shower wet rooms while residents will also be able to enjoy landscaped gardens and a communal terrace area.

The Royal Star & Garter Homes chief executive, Andy Cole, said: “The new High Wycombe Home will build on everything we have learned from delivering award-winning care in our existing Homes, as well as drawing on new innovations and thinking.

“We are looking forward to becoming part of the community in High Wycombe and offering specialist care to disabled veterans in the Buckinghamshire area and beyond.”