PLANS for eight new flats at a strip club have been resubmitted after the initial scheme was refused.

Developers want to transform The White Horse in West Wycombe Road into a block of flats despite previously being turned down by planners at Buckinghamshire Council.

The White Horse strip club is open and trading as usual. 

If allowed to go ahead, the White Horse – a building that dates from around the late 1800s – will be demolished and replaced with a “modern” red brick and grey block of eight flats comprising of two bedrooms and a rooftop garden.

Planning permission was granted back in 2021 to allow the conversion of the public house to a 13-bedroom House of Multiple Occupation (HMO).

If plans are refused then the developer can fall back on this plan to turn the currently open strip club into a HMO.

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Bucks Free Press: Artist impression of the flats Artist impression of the flats (Image: MSC Planning Associates Ltd)

Fresh plans submitted to Buckinghamshire Council suggest the building would be bulldozed and replaced with a three-storey block of flats and office space.

The applicant argues plans should be approved as "the public house is not a designated Community Asset."

They believe plans should be approved on the basis that the new plans are "more traditional" and in keeping with the area and the flats would provide undercroft parking, bin and cycle stores "to reduce traffic congestion."

Agents working on behalf of the applicant, Streamdown Property Ltd, said: "The pub is a shadow of its former self and has lost customers, particularly in the last decade.

"It has no kitchen, offers no food except bar snacks and is purely a ‘wet’ trade.

"Given its setback position and dilapidated nature, it has become an eyesore for the local community.

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"Its use as an adult entertainment venue for at least the last 20yrs is an unhappy relationship with its surroundings. Albeit offering some community benefit, such use serves an exceptional niche community.

"The market for such a facility is extremely limited, particularly in physical form and is perhaps better served elsewhere.

"Given the run-down appearance and shabby state of the interior, it is financially prohibitive to renovate it to its former glory."

Their earlier HMO plan for the site would be a “viable fall back” if these new flats are refused.

You can view the full selection of documents on the planning portal at www.wycombe.gov.uk using reference 23/05505/FUL.