A major new housing development that received hundreds of objections has been refused.

Bucks Council rejected an outline planning application submitted by The Portman Estate for the Beeches Park development in Beaconsfield.

Plans outlined 450 residential properties, including 40 per cent affordable housing, with four new access points off the Amersham Road (A355) and the Eastern Relief Road (ERR).

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A local centre including a community building (1,050 sqm), retail (1,000 sqm), a new (two-form entry) primary and pre-school, playing pitches, and a public open space was also proposed.

But the council found the scheme, relating to a 24-hectare parcel of agricultural land next to the Amersham Road and Minerva Way, would constitute “inappropriate development” as well as “spatial and visual harm” in the Green Belt.

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Adding: “The development parameters and layout represent poor design and fails to relate positively to the site and local context.

“It is considered that the additional traffic likely to be generated by the proposal would adversely affect the safety and flow of users of the existing road network and will not achieve safe and suitable access.”

An ecology assessment was “deficient”, the council argued, and impact mitigation on the Burnham Beeches Special Area of Conservation (SAC) “has not been secured”.

Cllr Jonathan Waters called the area a “holy Green Belt site”, adding: “Clearly, as an individual application for development in the Green Belt, this application is not supported by change of local plan and is an opportunistic challenge.”

Cllr Alastair Pike added: “Building up to 450 homes on Green Belt is in direct conflict to the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) and our town will not be able to cope with another 900 or so additional residents and the huge increase in traffic and extra pressure on its infrastructure, if this application is approved.”

An agent for the plan argued “there is no plan or strategy in place to meet the acute housing and affordable housing need in the area”.

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