A High Wycombe church’s plan to install CCTV cameras to deter sex, drug use, and fighting in its grounds has been refused.
This is just one of the many applications considered by Buckinghamshire Council during the past seven days.
To view more details for each application, go to the council’s planning portal with the reference number attached.
New CCTV, All Saints Church Of England Church, Church Street, High Wycombe (24/06652/CLP)
Planners have refused the church’s application for a certificate of lawfulness for the CCTV cameras, which was made by Reverend Anthony Searle.
Officers said a couple of technical points prevented the council issuing the certificate and that the church would therefore need to apply for planning permission – a more stringent form of planning consent.
In a decision notice, officers said the new cameras could not be classed as ‘permitted development’ because the church was a Grade I listed building and some of the proposed cameras would be within 10m of each other.
The church’s application form read: “We have been granted faculty. The CCTV is to hopefully reduce the antisocial behaviour in the churchyard: drug taking and dealing; sexual activity; fighting.”
The cameras were proposed to be fixed either side of the far southeastern corner of the building, overlooking the churchyard, path and some graves.
School canopy for outdoor lessons, Chalfont St Giles Infant School and Nursery School Lane Chalfont St Giles (PL/24/2763/SA)
Chalfont St Giles Infant School and Nursery School has applied for the cover structure to help facilitate outdoor learning and stop children ‘missing out on vital opportunities’.
The school for three-to-seven-year-olds has proposed an 11x4m structure with a ‘rainbow roof’ to allow group session work to take place in all weathers.
Its plans read: “We are an infant and nursery school and would like to install a freestanding canopy outside the reception classroom.
“In short, early years children are taught in and out of the classroom which is also called free flow teaching. Having a freestanding canopy will assist the teachers to teach the curriculum in the best possible way.”
New entrance canopies and an external fire escape staircase Buckinghamshire New University, Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe (24/06507/FUL)
Planners have approved the changes to the university’s High Wycombe campus, which include fitting three new dark grey glass top canopies to cover the site’s main entrances.
Proposals also include the installation of an external fire escape staircase from the first floor to ground level with an external door at first floor level.
The university said the appointed contractor for the work would minimise noise and that the safety of students, staff and the general public was ‘always of paramount importance’.
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