Bucks McDonald's drive-thru plans get final approval

This is just one of the many applications submitted to Buckinghamshire Council in the past seven days.

To view more details for each application, go to the council’s planning portal with the reference number attached.

A developer takes another swipe at converting a vacant pub into flats at Saffron Road, High Wycombe (22/08297/FUL).

The Masons Arms (Image: Google Maps)

The empty Masons Arms could still be transformed into five apartments under newly submitted plans.

A similar scheme was meant to be decided last month by councillors sitting on the planning panel but was withdrawn.

The development is to comprise two two-bed apartments at ground floor level, two studio flats at first-floor level, and a studio flat at second-floor level.

No car parking is proposed but each dwelling could have one cycle parking space each.

The Mason Arms closed down during the pandemic and is ‘no longer viable’ as a pub. Planning officers are yet to decide on the scheme.

Plans for a new McDonald’s drive-thru have been given the final go-ahead at Stokelake, Aylesbury (21/01247/APP).

The Askeys Factory was demolished (Image: Google Maps)

Another fast-food outlet is set to come to Buckinghamshire after Aylesbury Vale Estates completed its conditions and financial agreements.

Councillors sitting on the planning panel agreed to delegate granting planning permission to officers subject to those conditions despite 100 members of the public writing in to object.

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The plans involve building on the now demolished former Askeys factory site, which has been empty since 2020, for a McDonald’s drive-thru and 11 commercial units.

It is expected that up to 100 jobs would be created with the plans including a 49-bay car park, two reserve bays for drive-thru customers and a cycle store.

New retirement homes won’t be built at Wycombe Road, Stokenchurch (20/07388/FUL).

The existing buildings and land adjacent to Bangalore House and Falcon Court won’t be redeveloped into 1.5-storey ‘U’ shaped building that would have provided 11 flats for those over the age of 65.

The plans initially proposed 15 apartments with six parking bays but decided to reduce the number of flats to 11 in order to increase the parking spaces by another three bays.

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But like the residents who objected to the scheme, planning officers felt the building would ‘dominate’ the neighbouring properties, making it ‘not in keeping’ with the character and appearance of the area.

They also criticised the lack of affordable homes and the integration of renewable and low-carbon technologies into the development. Therefore, planning officers decided to refuse the application.