Plans to transform the police station sat in the “gateway” to Marlow were given the green light last night, despite concerns over limited parking spaces and impact on neighbouring homes.

Marlow Police Station, in Dean Street, has been in the spot light since 2014 when Thames Valley Police were forced to put it up for sale after announcing £44.6m of savings had to be made.

After revealing plans to transform the Georgian building into 30 retirement apartments, Churchill Retirement living was given the nod by councillors at Wycombe District Council’s planning meeting on Wednesday night.

Once again parking was at the centre of the discussion after the developers insisted that 11 parking spaces is enough to accommodate the 30 flats as, in their experience, the flat owners will want to “relinquish the burden of car ownership in a very short period of time”.

However councillor Alan Turner hit back at the claim, saying: “Whilst I appreciate the proposed parking numbers comply with our specifications, looking at a very similar development in Risborough we found out only too readily they are completely inadequate. It caused some horrendous parking problems on the streets outside.

“To claim that most of the people won’t drive or will give up their car the moment they move in because they suddenly realise they no longer wish to drive anywhere at all anywhere in the world, just walk everywhere, it doesn’t add up.”

The planning officer confirmed the number of parking spaces adheres to the council's requirement.

Neighbours living in Trinity Road and Verney Close, which back onto the police station, strongly opposed the size of the development for “severely impacting” their properties.

Matt Langridge, who lives on Verney Close “We welcome sheltered housing on this site but on a much smaller scale. The proposal will overdevelop the site to make profit for the developer giving no consideration to neighbours.

“It does not fit into the surrounding area where the maximum height of buildings is 2.5 storeys.”

The scheme will be made up of one and two bedroom flats for over 60s complete with a garden, also including the development of a smaller custom built station for Marlow officers.

Cllr Tony Lee hailed the development for being a “very good use of the site”, saying: “The location for the elderly residents, who probably aren’t as old as me, is fine and they can all walk to the town centre and the parking, whatever you do when you put large numbers of people in one place, you’re going to have a parking issue. I really can’t find another use for this site. We need a police station, we need elderly people housed, and this is perfect location for the town centre.”

Planning director at Churchill, Andrew Burgess, added: “We are pleased members have finally recognised the benefits and quality of the scheme. We are pleased we can now meet the housing needs of people in Marlow and the wider area.

“It has been a long process with the officers and we will now aim to start building as soon as possible.”

Planning permission was granted providing the developers make a contribution to affordable housing in the area.