Third Time Unlucky For Newitts

PLANS to build nine flats and three shops on land behind Newitts in Thame, have been called ?ill-conceived and unacceptable?.
The comments came at a meeting on Tuesday of Thame Town Council?s Planning committee, in a letter from the Thame Conservation Area Advisory Committee, who also said that these, the third variation of such plans, were a repeat of the two previously submitted.
Six letters of objection to the plans, which include three shops fronting the passage way from the High Street through to the Co-op car park, were read out at the meeting. One of them complained about ?an invisible notice? posted in the area about the planning application which the correspondent described as ?deeply suspicious.?
Another letter from Dorcester Place stated that the footpath was too narrow and that parking would put undue pressure on the approach road to the car park.
Another letter, from Hazelton Close, questioned the ownership of the passage and was concerned about deliveries to shops on the site and for the future of several mature trees in the area.
A letter from Lincoln Place expressed concerns about pollution from vehicles and noise pollution and said that large vehicles often queue to unload in the area already.
Cllr Beatrice Dobie said that in her opinion, a good thing about the proposal was that they would ?remove once and for all the portacabins etc? currently collected at the rear of Newitts?, and that she felt that the new plans were ?starting to go in the right direction.?
Cllr Nigel Champken-Woods however, said that in his view: ?Nothing has changed and getting rid of the portacabins etc was irrelevant to this application.?
The Mayor, Cllr David Laver said that whilst he felt car parking would not be such a problem since the SODC car park is not greatly used in the evening, he still felt that the proposed plan contained too many units for that area and did not think that there was room for access to the planned shops in the alley way. He was also concerned that butchery deliveries would increase at the front of Newitts? in the High Street which might itself create problems.
The Planning committee voted to recommend refusal of the plan on the same grounds as the two previous applications i.e. Insufficient parking provision, Traffic and Loading implications, Over-development and unneighbourly.