Up to 604 homes could be built in the Gomm Valley, it has been revealed – as Taylor Wimpey finally puts forward its plans for the precious green space after it bought the site last year.
Taylor Wimpey bought the 70-hectare High Wycombe site in May 2021 from Aviva Investors – prompting a dramatic fall-out as it meant that plans for a 1,000-home “green” village with developers Human Nature were binned.
According to new hybrid plans put forward by Taylor Wimpey – who have just celebrating selling their final home at their Pine Trees development in Daws Hill Lane – the Gomm Valley will eventually have up to 604 new homes built on it.
The homes will be a mix of one and two-bed apartments and two, three, four and five-bed houses. Forty-eight per cent will be designated affordable housing.
As well as new homes, Taylor Wimpey is planning to build a community facility, a one form entry school at the bottom of the valley with a 26-place pre-school and 1.4 hectares of employment land which will provide a minimum of 52 new full-time jobs, along with space for some self-build homes.
There will be vehicular access to the new estate from Gomm Road, Hammersley Lane and Cock Lane, pedestrian and cyclist connectivity, a new bus route through the neighbourhood, open space, community growing gardens and playgrounds.
Taylor Wimpey says the northern part of Gomm Road will be “remodelled”, with a three-arm simple priority junction, while a new priority junction will be built so the site can be accessed from Cock Lane.
Cock Lane will also be widened to the north of the new access point, but not to the south.
There will be a mix of parking, with some rear-parking courts, some spaces on separate housing plots and also some on-street spaces, as well as electric vehicle charging points for all new homes with an associated parking space.
Apart from the ‘primary avenue’ that will run through the site, there will be maximum speed limits of 20mph put in place for vehicles.
In the first phase of the development, 110 homes will be built in the south east of the site, along with two vehicle access points from Hammersley Lane, and five self-build plots. They will be a mix of two, two and a half and three storey buildings, with three apartment buildings of up to three and a half storeys.
Taylor Wimpey says their development will “create a high-quality new community which sits within the intrinsic character and beauty of the valley” – but news of the plans will not please campaigners who have fought for years to protect the Gomm Valley from development.
Hands Off Gomm Valley (HOG) campaigners have been steeling themselves for the arrival of fresh plans ever since a notice by Taylor Wimpey appeared in the Bucks Free Press on May 20 warning that an application was about to be put forward.
You can view the plans that have been submitted using the reference 22/06485/OUTEA at the Buckinghamshire Council planning portal.
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