The developer granted outline planning consent in 2019 for 350 homes on 100-acres of parkland at the entrance to Beaconsfield’s Georgian Old Town wants to build more than just flats and houses.

A whole lot more.

Two years further down the line following a delay due to Covid, Stephen Wicks, chief executive of Inland Homes, is hoping Bucks Council will approve the detailed plans for the site.

If the scheme gets the go-ahead, the former Ministry of Defence Language School at Wilton Park will be transformed into a hub for the local community.

The proposals now include a purpose-built nursery for 74 pre-school age children, a café, two outdoor play areas - one for under-fours, the other for over-4s and 140 more trees in the parkland meadows alongside specific wet and damp zones, footpaths, cycleways, picnic spots.

Once the plan has the council’s blessing, you’ll be able to look up a map of Wilton Park on Bucks Council’s website and work out what’s what.

The drawings are due to be submitted this month, ahead of the original schedule.

They’ve already been approved in principle.

Instead of building homes first and facilities later as originally intended, Inland Homes, now one of the leading companies in England specialising in regeneration, hopes to be adding to the local housing stock at Wilton Park in the same time frame as increasing the number of buildings with a commercial spin-off in the immediate area .

Bewley Homes began building the first 147 homes back in the spring, after getting the go-ahead for the first two phases.

Stephen Wicks lives in Beaconsfield. A few years back he moved his offices from Amersham to Beaconsfield largely because he likes working on home soil – that’s what he told friends at the time.

This week his company announced its intention to have the purpose built nursery school plus the café up and running by next Spring.

The two will be in two hectares of the 100-acre parkland at Wilton Park (two hectares is equivalent to about five acres give or take a few yards in old currency).

Meanwhile the company is pressing ahead to complete the new A355 relief road.

The plans for that were sent to Bucks Council early this year

Empty existing buildings along the route circumnavigating Beaconsfield Old Town are being demolished ahead of major work due to start in the next few weeks.

A statement from Inland Homes sent to the Free Press this week explaining the reason for the accelerated work schedule read: “As part of the outline approval for Wilton Park [Inland Homes] originally planned to deliver community facilities within later phases of the development [but] recognising the benefit its early delivery will bring to residents across Beaconsfield, we are now seeking approval to deliver these facilities early.

“This work will enable construction to begin quickly on approval of the road design, the plans for which were submitted to the council early this year

“The community hub, parkland, café and new facilities for First Place Nursery will bring Wilton Park to life and make it a thriving community which everyone can enjoy and a place that residents will be proud to call home.

“While our detailed drawings for the relief road still rest with the council we know how important the road’s completion and the positive impact it will have.”

Closest we have to a timetable for the completion of t current projects at Wilton Park including the stretch of the A355 relief road leading to it but avoiding Beaconsfield Old Town is next Spring.