Plans to tear down a warehouse near a sewage treatment plant and replace it with four houses have been appealed after they were thrown out.

The plans would have seen four three-bedroom semi-detached houses built in Chalkpit Lane, close to the Little Marlow Water Treatment Works and within a current residential area.

In the design and access statement, developers said the scheme had been designed “to create a pleasant living environment for the occupiers” and that “a traditionally designed pair of buildings” would make a “positive contribution” to the “immediate and wider character of the area”.

They wrote: “Having regard to the site characteristics we have concluded a two storey development with attic rooms arranged and sited as proposed will not be detrimental to the future occupiers.”

The building already had planning permission to be converted into six two-bedroom homes previously, according to the design and access statement.

But Wycombe District Council’s head of planning and sustainability said the proposed development, “by reason of its design…would constitute a cramped form of development which would be incongruous to the open and spacious character of this semi-rural location”.

Hamden Homes Ltd appealed the decision but the appeal has been recommended for dismissal, with the senior development management officer writing in a letter: “The council accepts that the design and built form of the existing warehouse present within the site is not overly aesthetically pleasing.

“However, it does preserve the existing industrial character of the southern portion of the site and relates to the remainder of the industrial buildings within the immediate locality.

“With regards to the appeal scheme, the introduction of two pairs of semi-detached dwellings of a design more in keeping with the neighbouring residential streets and of the density proposed is considered incongruous, harmful to the immediate locality’s character and an overdevelopment of the plot.

“The appeal scheme is considered to be more appropriate in a fully urbanised setting which is characterful of adjacent residential streets.”