Fate of major Marlow housing project Portland Gardens to be decided next week

Developer Crest Nicholson’s proposal to transform Portland Gardens – behind Marlow High Street – into a housing estate will be heard by Wycombe District Council on Wednesday.

Council officers have recommended the project for refusal for several reasons, including its design, the amount of affordable housing, parking layout and lack of amenity space.

But developers strongly disagree with the criticism and have hit back at WDC over the time it has taken to rule on the application, which was originally submitted in August and has since been revised.

In a strongly worded letter to WDC’s planning department, Crest Nicholson’s regional chairman Tim Beale said: “Each month of planning delay costs Crest approximately £55,000 in finance costs which is clearly a direct effect of the poor performance of Wycombe planning department.

“This is clearly an unfathomable amount of time to determine a planning application, particularly on an allocated housing site.”

Portland Gardens lies to the west of High Street and South of West Street. All but six of the existing properties on the largely unused site will be demolished if the housing plan gets the green light.

He adds that the team are “very confident” on their proposals and said Crest will appeal any refusal immediately.

However, WDC’s planning officers say in their advice to councillors that the plans go against existing guidance on the site.

They state: “The development would be contrary to the development plan in a number of respects and contrary to the supplementary planning documents including the Portland Development Brief.”

Residents and groups including the Marlow Society have spoken out in opposition to the plans on the plot, which was formerly the subject of a failed attempt to build a Waitrose store.

Fears centre over the layout of the site and the suitability for its town centre location, with some complaints arguing for added pedestrian access.

And the number of parking spaces has been called into question, with worries cars from the new estate will spill out onto Marlow’s already crowded road network.

The county council's highways department has ruled that the project would not cause a problem with traffic flow, claiming the access on Malthouse Way can handle the extra cars,

Letters of support have also been sent to the council expressing the need for more housing in Marlow.

And developers claim they have had 450 people interested in buying property in Portland Gardens after a successful consultation. 

The hearing takes place at WDC’s offices on Queen Victoria Road on Wednesday, April 8 at 6.30pm.