A meeting to update Saunderton residents on future development plans in the area took place last night.

The meeting was lead by Penelope Tollitt, Head of Planning and Sustainability and David Johncock, Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning & Sustainability at Wycombe District Council and aimed to give an update on the progress of the New Local Plan, as well as inform residents of an imminent planning application from a new developer.

Wycombe District Council had previously been building between 400 and 450 new homes a year, but they now need to build between 500 and 700 homes to meet new housing needs in the Wycombe District.

Penelope Tollitt said: “This meeting has been called because there are things going on that are still fairly loose but we need to share it with you. It’s quite difficult to share with you, because as soon as we do, you’ll want details and we can’t give much of that detail.”

Penelope admitted that when consultations were being held nine months ago, Wycombe District Council did not expect to have to look at developing in the village.

She said: “At the time of putting this consultation together, we really didn’t think this was going to be something we would be running with.”

Two sites in Saunderton have been earmarked for housing development – Wests Yard Industrial Site in Slough Lane and the Molins site in Haw Lane.

Dandara Homes submitted a planning application around six months ago to create 42 new homes on the site of Wests Yard. Out of 42 homes, 19 of them will be affordable housing.  The planning application has not yet been determined by Wycombe District Council.

The Molins site is classified as brownfield land and has been vacant for many years, until it was bought by developers, St. Congar Land.

St. Congar Land have proposed to use the Molins site to build 213 new homes and are expected to put in a planning application for this before the end of the year.

The land next to the Molins site is now owned by the same land owner as St. Congar, meaning the developers could create between 500 and 1000 houses on the site.

This estate could then potentially be turned into a new village, which could secure a new school and other infrastructure to support it, paid for by the developer.

Sue Robinson, Communications Officer at WDC said: "The Council will be exploring through the local plan if there should be development between Molins and the village, providing facilities such as a school, community hall and shop – but that process has not begun and will take several years.

"The extent of any larger development is therefore not clear at this stage."

During the Q&A session, residents raised concerns over increased traffic, lack of footpaths and the strain on rail services if both developments go ahead.

Penelope agreed that there were lots of issues regarding infrastructure that would need to be addressed if the proposed developments were to go ahead: “There are some benefits about the development of the Molins site but lots of issues as well. There’s no point in doing this if there aren’t more parking spaces at the train station. There’s no point doing it if we’re going to turn these rural roads into rat runs.”