A PUB owner in Wooburn Common has been told to go back to the drawing board again after having a fifth extension plan thrown out.

Officers at Wycombe District Council had recommended the plans for a new block housing 13 letting rooms at the Chequers pub be approved.

But members of the authority's planning committee performed a dramatic u-turn last night, saying the latest application was still "not quite right yet".

Four previous applications dating back to 1986 had been rejected by the council and later dismissed at appeal.

The latest proposals, for a T shaped outbuilding in what is currently the Kiln Lane pub's beer garden, were turned down on the grounds it would cause a loss of an open space in a semi rural area and be detrimental to the landscape.

Cllr Julia Langley said losing the beer garden was "a retrograde step" and Cllr Hugh McCarthy said the planned building looked "rather austere".

He added: "It doesn't harmonise with the locality. It's a very utalitarian building and that worries me a bit.

"It would appear to me to be obscuring some of the more characterful appearance of the existing inn."

Cllr Alan Turner said: "I thought the design was absolutely dreadful."

But Cllr Jean Teesdale said: "In areas where we are losing our pubs, we have to accept in order to make these businesses pay, people do have to diversify.

"We've got something similar in Radnage. It fits in, it doesn't cause a problem. It provides a service so people can come and see our countryside.

"I think this is fine in this area. It's so low key I really don't think it's going to cause any problems to residents."

The plans were rejected by nine votes to five.