A decision still has not been made on the potential expansion of a golf club driving range in Loudwater after councillors disagreed with officers who said the plans should be approved.

Burhill Golf & Leisure Ltd, which operates Wycombe Heights golf centre in Rayners Avenue, wants to import materials to expand their existing golf driving range because it is “sub-standard” but the application has been met with criticism from residents and councillors.

At a planning meeting last week, parish councillor Chris Dodds said that Chepping Wycombe Parish Council believed the “potential suffering” of residents in Rayners Avenue had been “glossed over by all parties as a transient problem.”

He said: “Residents will suffer from noise, dust, vibration and additional traffic problems. This will have a detrimental impact on their living environment and human rights. This is unacceptable to us.”

David Walsh, representing residents who object to the scheme, denounced the scheme as a “money-making venture” with “no real benefit to the local community” and would result in “up to a year’s misery for residents.”

He said: “Rayners Avenue is a narrow, residential street. There is a long rush hour queue every morning, it is wholly unsuitable for this volume of traffic. There will be giant trucks passing 140 times a day. [Residents] will be subjected to an onslaught of noise, vibration and chaos.

“This is a day on day, thundering of heavy vehicles up our road, month after month and for what? A minor upgrade.”

Derek Marlow, acting on behalf of Burhill Leisure, said claims that the work would only benefit them was “untrue” and that it would be good for “the community, the club and its members.”

He said: “It is totally wrong to assert that this scheme is being submitted for the purposes of financial gain. We believe it is the correct solution for our requirements.”

While councillors spoke out against the application, planning officer Alastair Nicholson said they should balance their concerns about traffic and disturbance against the long term benefits of the scheme.

He said: “I agree, there is going to be a disturbance and it will definitely be over a period of many months which is not ideal, but ultimately, given that a previous application has been determined and this wasn’t a reason for refusal, I think it would be very difficult to refuse an application on these grounds.”

Eight councillors agreed they were minded to refuse the application, with four disagreeing and one abstention, but it has now been deferred to the Regulatory and Appeals Committee for final decision because councillors could not accept the officer’s recommendations.

Speaking after the meeting, David Walsh said it was “very odd” that councillors came to a decision but were then “not allowed” to make it.

He said: “They are not allowed to make the obvious ruling that the chaos that would be caused by lorries going up and down is going to impact residents.

“It seems bizarre. It is going to be a real pain for residents but for some technicality they are not allowed to make that decision.”