Chalfont St Peter

Overview
Site Location
Planning Background
Have your say

OVERVIEW

Thank you for taking the time to visit this public consultation website.

This website gives you the chance to view our client, Oakford Homes’, plans for the redevelopment of Rock House, Austenwood Lane, Chalfont St Peter, with 8x3-bedroom and 2x2-bedroom homes. Oakford Homes are proposing to submit a fully detailed planning application in November 2022, which will include a full package of drawings, site plans and details in respect of parking, access, and landscaping. You can help shape this emerging scheme by providing us with your feedback on the initial materials included in the links below. Please take your time to look through the proposals and complete the on-line comments form.

 

ABOUT OAKFORD HOMES

Oakford Homes is a privately-owned house builder based near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire that provides quality homes in the South East of England. Some of the company’s recent developments can be found in aspirational locations such as Chichester, Henley-on-Thames, Midhurst and Beaconsfield. They are also currently in the process of delivering new developments at Berkshire, West Sussex and Surrey.

You can learn more about Oakford Homes and its approach to the delivery of new homes at www.oakfordhomes.co.uk.

 

PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT

  • A development of 10 homes arranged in an inverted ‘L’ shaped layout similar to the two principal buildings of the former care home;
  • A mix of dwellings comprising 8x3-bedroom properties suitable for smaller families with the remaining units to be provided as 2x4-bedroom properties;
  • A contemporary design that seeks to draw cues from the appearance of the current Austenwood Road-facing block, incorporating features such as front-facing gables, triangular dormers in the roof and use of traditional coloured red brick. This design approach would be carried on around the corner onto Criss Grove;
  • Homes of a maximum 2.5-storeys to ensure that the development is neither overbearing in respect of neighbouring properties, nor more prominent when viewed from the Conservation Area and the Common than the current building on site;
  • Incidental soft landscaping throughout, including planting along the front of the site facing onto Austenwood Lane to maintain the current leafy appearance of the site as well as new blocks of planting on Criss Grove to break up and soften the area of parking facing the street;
  • Appropriate and proportionate residential garden space throughout that both allows a high standard of amenity for future residents whilst ensuring sufficient back-to-back separation sufficient to preserve the privacy of existing residents;
  • Provision of 22 parking spaces which would directly meet local parking requirements. These would be located across a parking court to the side and rear of the new properties (16 spaces) with the additional 6 spaces positioned in two blocks fronting onto Criss Grove, interspersed with new blocks of planting; and
  • The provision of a single vehicular access point to the proposal drawn from Criss Grove resulting in the an improvement to highway safety.

 

Street elevations: 

1

Download: 1659-SK06B-Street-Elevations-Coloured-sketch.pdf

The site is an approximate 0.22ha parcel of land which currently comprises a former care home. It sits at the corner of Austenwood Lane and Criss Grove. The current building on the site comprises an early 20th Century brick building of 2.5-storeys with a more modern rendered 2-storey extension projecting to its rear along its Criss Grove frontage.

An aerial photograph of the site (approximately outlined in red) is shown below:

site

Due to the presence of the existing buildings on the site it consists of previously developed land (PDL). It lies within the settlement boundary of Chalfont St Peter and in an established residential area. The site lies adjacent but outside of the Gold Hill East Conservation Area. However, it does not sit within the context of any important views into or out of the designation. Likewise, it is not covered by any restrictive environmental designations.

 

Site plan: 

2

Download: 1659-SK05F-Site-Plan-Sketch.pdf

The site subject of Oakford Homes’ proposals currently comprises a vacant care home facility. Prior to the closure of the care home is suffered from falling levels of occupancy due to a combination of the lessened demand for a care home at this location (a number of other facilities have recently opened across the district) and the inability of the charity to use large areas of the building due to lack of funds to maintain it. At the time of closing, in September 2021, there was only a single full-time resident at the property and its operator, Gold Hill Care, experienced critical financial difficulty in respect of its function as a care provider, largely due to the various impacts and legacy of Covid.


Following a review of the charity’s operations the decision was made to focus on call-out care to private residences which would have the added benefit to the charity of relieving them of perhaps the single largest cost, that is the maintenance of a dated care facility, whilst allowing clients to remain in their own homes for longer. The sale of the application site to Oakford Homes following its closure in 2021 has provided a significant boost to the charity and has allowed it to significantly increase its operations and the number of clients under its care.

A pre-application enquiry was submitted to Buckinghamshire Council to allow discussion of the proposals prior to the submission of a planning application. A site visit was undertaken in September 2022 during which positive comments were received from the case officer with no significant issues being identified. Whilst the formal written response is awaited Oakford Homes are confident that all of the key matters in relation to the development of the site have been taken into account to date and reflected in the current proposals.