Plans to build 142 new homes in Chesham were given the green light despite dozens of objections from residents and community groups.

The site of the former 90 Asheridge Road will be redeveloped into four-storey flats and office space with associated car parking and landscaping after an application was approved at a Chiltern District Council planning committee meeting.

Developers said the site had remained “vacant and derelict” for more than a decade and as a result, did not “contribute to the district’s current or future economic or housing need in its current state”.

They said in their design and access statement: “There also continues to be a pressing and acute need for the creation of new homes with latest government guidance necessitating the redevelopment of underutilised brownfield employment sites such as this for new homes to ensure they are put to better use.”

The application received dozens of objections, including from the Chesham Society, Hivings Hill Residents Association and Chesham Town Council (CTC).

The town council recommended refusal of the application on the grounds of it being “overbearing”, an “overdevelopment of the area” and “out of keeping” with the existing street scene.

The CTC planning committee also raised traffic concerns, and concerns at the “lack of appropriate infrastructure”.

Hivings Hill Residents Association chairman Brenda Collins said she feared the development of the 4.5 storey flats would “set a precedent” for the rest of the town.

She said: “I am absolutely gutted. We haven’t got four-storey blocks anywhere else in Chesham. It will open the floodgates for elsewhere in the town.

“They are going to be so close together that they are going to be looking into each other’s windows I think.”

But in the design and access statement of the plans, developers insisted that the flats would be “partly screened” by “tall hedgerow and mature trees that line Asheridge Road”, and that the reason they are at the height they are is because they are situated at the “lowest part of the site”.

The planning group of the Chesham Society also voiced concerns on the town’s infrastructure, saying it hoped CDC would consider a “global view” of mentioned “infrastructure issues that Chesham currently faces” before deciding whether a “point has reached” where “such large scale” proposals “should be resisted until progress has been made with resolving current infrastructure issues”.

Howard Griffin, who lives in neighbouring Portobello Close, said the design of the development was “out of character” with the surrounding area, adding that he thought it was over-development which would have a “detrimental” impact on area.

Other neighbours voiced concerns at the number of provided parking spaces, and some said the development would “heavily impact” businesses in the area due to “insufficient parking”.

Ms Collins added: “The voices in Chesham have been disregarded by the district council. The people in Asheridge Road do not want it, the Chesham Society does not want it, the town council does not want it – and we have got it.”

A Chiltern District Council spokesman said: “Planning permission for this development has been granted subject to completion of a Section 106 agreement.

“This is a former employment site which has been vacant for about 10 years and previously planning permission was granted for a data centre, which covered a large percentage of the site.

“The full range of public views were taken into account and the council’s planning committee gave careful consideration to all the objections and comments received.

“In line with national planning policies, the council’s core strategy and local planning policies the committee decided to grant permission, subject to completion of the legal agreement.

“Development involved regeneration of the site for a mixed commercial and residential use, including affordable housing.”