Have your say on a local planning application
An outline planning application has been submitted for up to 50 residential dwellings at Plough Lane
18th August 2026
An outline planning application (ref: PL/25/6431/OA) has been submitted for up to 50 residential dwellings on land adjacent to Plough Lane.
If you have concerns or wish to object you can make your views known. Local residents and interested parties can view the plans and submit comments through Buckinghamshire Council's Planning Portal or by email to planning.comments@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
Please submit any formal comments directly through the Council’s planning process before the deadline of 26th August 2026.
The Parish Council has submitted the below objections. Please note that template letters or copy and pasted responses only count as one objection.
The Parish Council's objections
PL/25/6431/OA – PLOUGH LANE, STOKE POGES
Stoke Poges Parish Council strongly objects to application PL/25/6431/OA for outline planning permission for up to 50 residential dwellings at Plough Lane, Stoke Poges.
The Parish Council considers that the proposal conflicts with the statutory development plan when read as a whole, including the made Stoke Poges Neighbourhood Plan, the adopted South Bucks Core Strategy and relevant saved policies of the South Bucks District Local Plan. Buckinghamshire Council continues to identify the South Bucks Core Strategy and saved South Bucks Local Plan as operative development plan documents for the former South Bucks area, while made neighbourhood plans also form part of the Buckinghamshire Development Plan.
The Parish Council also relies upon the National Planning Policy Framework published on 17 August 2026 as a material consideration. References in this objection to policies prefixed GB, TR, DP, HO and DM are references to national decision making policies contained within that Framework and are not Buckinghamshire Local Plan policy references.
The emerging Buckinghamshire Local Plan is considered separately and afforded only such weight as is appropriate having regard to its stage of preparation, unresolved objections and consistency with national policy.
The proposal would introduce substantial residential development onto presently open land in a sensitive settlement edge location. Its effects cannot properly be assessed simply by reference to a numerical provision of up to 50 dwellings. The development would introduce a new estate road and principal vehicular access together with internal highways, hardstanding, parking, traffic movements, servicing, lighting, gardens, boundary treatments, pedestrian and cycle movements and the general domestic activity associated with a residential estate. The cumulative effect of those changes would materially alter the character, appearance, openness and function of the site and its relationship with Plough Lane and the surrounding countryside.
Settlement Hierarchy, Location and Sustainability
Stoke Poges is a large village rather than a higher order settlement with a comprehensive range of services, employment opportunities and transport connections. The Parish Council’s evidence prepared in connection with the emerging Buckinghamshire Local Plan identifies significant limitations in sustainable transport provision. Stoke Poges has no railway station and residents requiring rail services must travel outside the village, principally towards Slough or Gerrards Cross. Bus services and pedestrian and cycle connections do not provide the level of choice or convenience available in larger settlements. This context is directly relevant to national NPPF Policy TR3 concerning the location of development in sustainable locations. The Parish Council considers that the sustainability of the application cannot properly be demonstrated simply by identifying destinations which are theoretically within walking, cycling or public transport distance. The practical quality of those alternatives is material. This includes the frequency and hours of public transport, the continuity and safety of pedestrian routes, the availability and quality of cycle infrastructure and whether those alternatives constitute realistic choices for ordinary daily journeys. Future residents would need to travel for employment, rail services, healthcare, education, shopping and other facilities outside the immediate locality. In those circumstances, a development of up to 50 dwellings is likely to generate a significant degree of private car dependency unless substantial improvements in sustainable transport provision are demonstrated and secured. This concern is consistent with South Bucks Core Strategy Core Policy 7, Accessibility and Transport. Buckinghamshire Council itself identifies Core Policy 7 as the relevant South Bucks policy for Transport Assessments and Travel Plans.
The Parish Council therefore relies upon national Policy TR3 and South Bucks Core Policy 7 in submitting that the location, scale and accessibility of the proposal must be considered together rather than assessing the development solely in terms of whether additional vehicle movements can theoretically be accommodated on the highway network.
Green Belt
The application site lies within the Green Belt and the proposal must be assessed rigorously against the current national Green Belt policies. The Parish Council relies upon national NPPF Policies GB6, GB7 and GB8. The Parish Council recognises that the current national policy framework contains circumstances in which development may not constitute inappropriate development in the Green Belt, including provisions concerning grey belt. It is therefore not the Parish Council’s case that the proposal should automatically be treated as inappropriate simply because it comprises housing development in the Green Belt. However, if the applicant relies upon Policy GB7, all elements of the relevant policy test must be satisfied. The categorisation of land as grey belt does not establish that development is automatically acceptable. The sustainability of the location remains particularly important because the current national policy framework links Green Belt development with the sustainable location requirements of national Policy TR3.
The development would introduce the physical and visual characteristics of a residential estate onto presently open land. The consequences for openness are not confined to the footprints of buildings. They include roads, hardstanding, parked and moving vehicles, lighting, gardens, domestic boundaries, street furniture, domestic paraphernalia and a substantial increase in residential activity. The effect would be materially urbanising. The Parish Council also considers the wider Green Belt function of the land to be important. Stoke Poges lies close to the substantial urban area of Slough and the open countryside surrounding the village contributes to maintaining physical and perceptual separation between settlements and to resisting the outward extension of urban form. Development should therefore be assessed not only in terms of the visibility of individual buildings but also in terms of the site’s contribution to openness, countryside protection and settlement separation. The Parish Council additionally relies upon saved South Bucks Local Plan Policy GB1. Buckinghamshire Council’s current development-plan mapping continues to identify GB1 amongst the saved Green Belt policies.
Golden Rules and Infrastructure
As this is a proposal for major housing development in the Green Belt, national Policy GB8 concerning the Golden Rules is material. The Parish Council considers that the Council should be satisfied before granting permission that the development complies with all applicable national requirements concerning affordable housing, infrastructure and accessible green space. This issue is directly related to the Parish Council’s wider concern regarding infrastructure capacity. South Bucks Core Strategy Core Policy 6 concerns Local Infrastructure Needs and remains relevant to the additional demand generated by development. The question is not simply whether financial contributions can be collected. It is whether infrastructure necessary to make the development acceptable has been identified, whether sufficient capacity exists, whether improvements are deliverable and whether they can be provided when the additional demand arises. The cumulative demands generated by substantial residential development upon highways, public transport, schools, healthcare, drainage, utilities, recreation and community facilities should therefore be understood before permission is granted.
Stoke Poges Neighbourhood Plan
The Stoke Poges Neighbourhood Plan is a made neighbourhood plan and forms part of the statutory development plan. Buckinghamshire Council formally lists Stoke Poges amongst the made neighbourhood plans for the South Planning Area. The Plan was made in 2025 and should therefore be treated as a statutory development plan document rather than as a peripheral or merely emerging consideration. The Parish Council relies upon the applicable policies and objectives of the Neighbourhood Plan concerning appropriate design, green infrastructure, sustainable development, village character and the protection of the night time environment. With in the plan the Parish Council identified suitable areas for small scale development within the built area of village infrastructure.
Policy SP9 concerning Green Infrastructure is particularly relevant to the effects of development upon the network of open land, vegetation, hedgerows, habitat connections and landscape features surrounding the village.
Policy SP12 concerning Dark Skies is also relevant because the proposal would introduce street lighting, domestic illumination, vehicle headlights and additional night-time activity into an area which presently contributes to the rural night time environment.
The Neighbourhood Plan reflects a locally developed approach to accommodating appropriate growth while respecting the particular character, Green Belt setting and infrastructure limitations of Stoke Poges. The Parish Council is not objecting to housing provision as a matter of principle. Its objection concerns the scale, location and effects of this particular proposal and whether substantial development on open settlement edge land is consistent with the statutory planning framework established for the village.
Highway Safety and Proposed Access
The Parish Council has substantial concerns regarding the safety and suitability of the proposed principal vehicular access onto Plough Lane. Those concerns arise from the combination of the highway geometry, the bend, available visibility, existing traffic movements and the existing residential driveway directly opposite the proposed development junction. Plough Lane is a constrained road whose physical characteristics are materially different from those of a highway designed to serve a substantial residential estate. The proposal would introduce repeated entering, emerging and turning movements associated with up to 50 dwellings together with refuse vehicles, deliveries, servicing vehicles, visitors and emergency service movements.
National NPPF Policy TR6 concerning the assessment of transport impacts is therefore particularly important. The transport evidence should assess the practical operation of the proposed junction using actual site conditions and appropriate evidence rather than relying solely upon theoretical visibility dimensions or the posted speed limit. The assessment should address measured or otherwise robustly evidenced traffic speeds, forward visibility around the bend, visibility available to vehicles emerging from the development, the ability of approaching drivers to perceive and react to vehicles slowing or waiting to turn and interactions with pedestrians, cyclists and existing accesses.
South Bucks Core Policy 7 is directly relevant to accessibility and transport, while saved South Bucks Local Plan Policies TR5 and TR7 remain material to highway safety and access. Buckinghamshire Council continued to rely expressly upon TR5, TR7 and Core Policy 7 in a South Buckinghamshire Area Planning Committee decision as recently as December 2024 in relation to highway safety and car-dependent development. The Parish Council considers that the proposed access should therefore be assessed against national Policies TR3 and TR6, South Bucks Core Policy 7 and saved South Bucks Local Plan Policies TR5 and TR7.
Existing Driveway Directly Opposite the Proposed Access
The relationship between the proposed junction and the existing residential driveway at No. 38 Plough Lane is a particularly important site specific highway consideration. The Parish Council understands from the occupiers’ representation that this existing driveway is directly opposite the proposed development access and is not shown on the submitted access plans. If that remains the position in the material before the Council, it is a material omission. The safety of a new junction serving up to 50 dwellings cannot properly be assessed without taking account of an existing residential vehicular access directly opposite and the interaction between vehicles using both accesses. The occupiers’ representation states that the applicant’s swept path analysis shows refuse vehicles and cars undertaking turning movements across or immediately adjacent to the frontage of No. 38 and that no equivalent assessment has been undertaken of vehicles emerging from that driveway. The Parish Council considers that the Local Highway Authority should therefore require appropriate vehicle tracking analysis demonstrating the simultaneous operation of both accesses. The assessment should include vehicles entering and leaving No. 38, vehicles entering and emerging from the development, vehicles slowing or waiting to turn into the development, refuse and delivery vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists and approaching traffic negotiating the bend. The occupiers also identify submitted visibility splays of approximately 4.3 metres by 44 metres and 1.5 metres by 33 metres but state that these are assessed from the proposed development access and do not assess sight lines from the existing driveway opposite or fully reflect the bend and existing vegetation. The Parish Council considers that this requires specific examination by Buckinghamshire Highways.
The relevant highway-safety question is not merely whether the development access itself can demonstrate a prescribed visibility splay. It is whether the complete arrangement, including the existing opposing driveway, can operate safely under realistic conditions. This issue is strengthened by the evidence that Buckinghamshire Highways has already approved an H-bar access protection marking at No. 38 under reference 976132. The Parish Council does not suggest that an H-bar and proposed double yellow line restrictions are legally equivalent highway measures. However, the existence and purpose of the existing access protection measure are plainly relevant to understanding the operational characteristics of this driveway.
The Local Highway Authority should therefore explain how the proposed waiting restrictions, junction geometry and existing H-bar arrangement interact and whether the proposed development would reduce or otherwise alter the manoeuvring space available to the existing property. Unless the proposed and existing accesses have been assessed together using realistic traffic and vehicle movements, the Parish Council considers that the Council cannot safely conclude that the development would avoid an unacceptable impact upon highway safety.
Pedestrian and Cycle Safety
A development of this scale must also provide safe, attractive and practical access for pedestrians, people with reduced mobility and cyclists. The relevant assessment should not be confined to whether a route physically exists. The quality of the route, continuity of footways, crossing opportunities, visibility, lighting, traffic conditions and accessibility for children, older residents, wheelchair and mobility-aid users and people with push chairs are material. The limitations of the surrounding highway network reinforce the Parish Council’s concern that future residents would remain substantially dependent upon private vehicles. This issue engages national Policy TR3, national Policy TR6 and South Bucks Core Policy 7.
Cumulative Highway Effects
The cumulative development position should be treated as a significant material consideration. The application should not be assessed as though the 50 proposed dwellings would necessarily exist in isolation. There are other substantial development proposals within the surrounding area capable of placing additional traffic upon the same road network. The Parish Council considers that the current planning status and scale of those proposals should be verified at the date of determination and that relevant developments should be incorporated into reasonable future transport scenarios where required by national Policy TR6 and accepted transport-assessment methodology. The transport evidence should identify transparently which developments have been incorporated within the assessment and explain why any significant development capable of affecting Plough Lane, Farthing Green Lane, Wexham Street or connected junctions has been included or excluded. A materially incomplete or outdated traffic baseline would not provide a reliable basis upon which to determine cumulative network effects. The Parish Council’s concern is not that all potential development should automatically be treated as committed. It is that the decision maker should understand and assess the realistic cumulative development context rather than considering this application within an artificially narrow baseline.
Green Infrastructure, Ecology and Biodiversity
The Parish Council relies upon Stoke Poges Neighbourhood Plan Policy SP9 and South Bucks Core Strategy Core Policy 9 concerning the Natural Environment. Buckinghamshire Council continues expressly to identify South Bucks Core Policy 9 as the relevant development plan policy concerning biodiversity. Open land, hedgerows, field boundaries and vegetation around Stoke Poges collectively perform ecological and landscape functions extending beyond the boundaries of individual habitat parcels. These include wildlife movement and habitat connectivity, landscape structure, carbon storage, soil protection and surface water interception. The development should therefore be assessed for its effect upon the wider green-infrastructure network rather than simply whether particular individual landscape features are retained within the application boundary. The private representation also records concerns attributed to the Council’s ecological consultation response relating to reptiles, receptor arrangements and application of the mitigation hierarchy. The Parish Council considers that the application should be determined using the latest ecological consultation response and the most recent validated ecological evidence. The representation further identifies concerns regarding the submitted Biodiversity Net Gain metric, including a stated net loss in habitat units, trading rule issues and the absence at that stage of secured off-site compensation. Because BNG evidence may change during the application process, the Parish Council does not rely upon historic figures where they have subsequently been superseded. The determining authority should instead be satisfied, by reference to the latest validated information, that the statutory BNG requirements are capable of being met and secured.
Drainage and Water Infrastructure
The Parish Council remains concerned regarding drainage and wider infrastructure capacity. Parts of Stoke Poges experience surface water drainage pressures and development of this scale would increase the importance of demonstrating that a technically satisfactory and deliverable drainage strategy exists. South Bucks Core Policy 13 concerning Environmental and Resource Management and the relevant current national flood-risk and sustainable-drainage policies are material. The private representation records concerns arising from the Lead Local Flood Authority response concerning discharge arrangements, sewer ownership, attenuation calculations, the drainage hierarchy and the deliverability of off site works. The Parish Council considers that any outstanding technical objection from the Lead Local Flood Authority should be resolved on the basis of satisfactory evidence before permission is granted where it concerns matters fundamental to the deliverability of the development. Where drainage depends upon land, connections or infrastructure outside the applicant’s control, the Council should require sufficient evidence that those works can actually be delivered. We also note that there is an open stream through the plots which flows during the winder months taking excess water away.
Dark Skies and Lighting
The proposal would introduce substantial additional artificial illumination into a presently open settlement-edge environment. The Parish Council relies upon Stoke Poges Neighbourhood Plan Policy SP12 concerning Dark Skies. Potential sources include street lighting, junction lighting, pedestrian route lighting, domestic external lighting and vehicle headlights. The proposed access is particularly important because vehicles emerging from the development would face towards the existing residential frontage and driveway opposite. The residents’ representation specifically identifies concern about headlights shining towards the property and affecting drivers leaving the existing driveway. The lighting effects should therefore be assessed both in terms of residential amenity and the rural night-time character of the locality. A lighting strategy should demonstrate that any illumination is necessary, appropriately located and capable of avoiding or minimising unnecessary spill, glare and effects upon neighbouring residents and nocturnal wildlife and not conflict with policy SP12.
Character, Appearance and Residential Amenity
The proposal would cause a marked change in the character of this part of Stoke Poges. Plough Lane derives part of its character from its rural alignment, adjoining open land, vegetation and its role in the transition between the village and countryside. A residential estate of up to 50 dwellings would introduce an urbanising influence extending substantially beyond the buildings themselves.
The junction, road widening and engineering, hard surfacing, footways, cycle infrastructure, signage, road markings, parked vehicles, street lighting, domestic boundaries and general residential activity would all contribute to that change.
The Parish Council relies upon saved South Bucks Local Plan Policy EP3, which requires development to be compatible with the character and amenities of the site, adjoining development and the locality and specifically addresses scale, layout and siting. The Parish Council also relies upon saved Policy H9, which requires residential development to be compatible with the character of its surroundings in terms including density, layout, design, height, scale and form and to avoid unacceptable effects upon nearby properties and the locality. These policies are particularly relevant because landscaping cannot remove the fundamental change in use and intensity represented by the introduction of a residential estate and its associated highway infrastructure onto open land. The Parish Council considers that the resulting effect upon character and appearance weighs materially against the proposal.
Buckinghamshire Local Plan 2045 Regulation 19 Publication Version
The Parish Council notes that the emerging Buckinghamshire Local Plan 2045 Regulation 19 Publication Version does not identify Stoke Poges or Wexham as locations for the scale of development now being promoted through a series of individual planning applications. This is highly relevant. The emerging Local Plan represents Buckinghamshire Council's current strategic approach to the distribution of growth across the authority area. The Parish Council is concerned that permitting substantial development through a succession of individual planning applications on Green Belt or Grey Belt land would risk circumventing the plan-making process and creating strategic growth in locations which have not been selected for such development through the Local Plan. The cumulative effect of the applications currently being promoted in and around Stoke Poges and Wexham is potentially very substantial.
PL/26/01820/OA, PL/25/6431/OA, PL/26/06177/OA and PL/26/06178/OA alone amount to approximately 1,047 dwellings, before taking account of any additional development at Pinewood Nurseries or other pending proposals. Such a scale of growth should be considered strategically through the Local Plan process rather than allowed to emerge incrementally through individual applications. The absence of strategic allocation for this scale of development is therefore a significant material consideration.
Outline Nature of the Application
The outline nature of the application does not reduce the need to resolve matters fundamental to the acceptability of the principle, scale and access at this stage. Permission for up to 50 dwellings would establish a substantial development envelope. The Council should therefore be satisfied before outline permission is granted that development of that scale can be accommodated without unacceptable harm. This is particularly important in relation to the principal vehicular access. The interaction between the proposed development junction, the bend, actual highway geometry, visibility, opposing residential driveway and pedestrian and cycle movements is fundamental to whether safe and suitable access can be achieved. A material deficiency in the location or operation of the principal access should not be deferred to later detailed design.
Planning Balance
The Parish Council acknowledges the national objective of increasing housing supply and accepts that the provision of additional homes carries material weight in favour of the proposal under the current NPPF. That benefit does not, however, determine the application in isolation. The proposal must be considered against the statutory development plan and relevant material considerations as a whole.
The Parish Council relies particularly upon the current national NPPF policies concerning Green Belt, sustainable location, transport and highway safety; South Bucks Core Policies 6, 7, 9 and 13; saved South Bucks Local Plan Policies GB1, EP3, H9, TR5 and TR7; and the relevant policies of the made Stoke Poges Neighbourhood Plan, including SP9 and SP12.
The highway issue carries particular significance because this is not simply a question of whether an additional quantity of traffic can be accommodated. The development would establish its principal vehicular access at a constrained location associated with a bend and directly opposite an existing residential driveway. The opposing driveway, the visibility available to its users, the existing H-bar access protection and the simultaneous operation of both accesses must therefore form an integral part of the highway-safety assessment. A finding that the development access itself achieves a prescribed visibility distance does not necessarily answer that site specific issue. The determining authority must be satisfied that the entire junction arrangement would operate safely in practice. The cumulative effects upon the highway network, sustainable transport, infrastructure, drainage, green infrastructure, landscape and settlement character must also be considered together rather than compartmentalised.
Cumulative Impact of Nearby Development
The Parish Council is particularly concerned that the application cannot properly be considered in isolation. There are a number of substantial development proposals within the surrounding area which, if permitted either individually or cumulatively, would place significant additional pressure on local roads, services, infrastructure and the rural character of Stoke Poges and Wexham.
These include:
- PL/26/01820/OA for approximately 317 dwellings;
- PL/25/6431/OA for approximately 50 dwellings;
- PL/26/06177/OA and PL/26/06178/OA for a combined total of approximately 680 dwellings; and
- the prospect of a further major commercial proposal at Pinewood Nurseries, Wexham Street, potentially involving warehousing and/or data-centre development.
These proposals represent, collectively, a very substantial potential increase in development within and around an area which already has constrained highway capacity, limited pedestrian infrastructure and limited local facilities. The cumulative effect of these schemes must be taken into account when considering whether further development at Jasmine Lodge represents sustainable development. The Parish Council is concerned that incremental approvals on individual Grey Belt sites could result in a pattern of unplanned strategic growth without the infrastructure, transport planning or spatial strategy normally required to support development of this scale. That would be contrary to a plan led approach.
The correct assessment is not simply whether each application might be capable of being accommodated when viewed in isolation, but whether the combined effect of existing commitments, pending applications and reasonably foreseeable development would result in unacceptable pressure upon the local highway network, pedestrian safety, local services, landscape character and Green Belt function. The Parish Council asks Buckinghamshire Council to undertake an explicit cumulative impact assessment before determining this application.
Conclusion
The proposal would introduce substantial residential development onto presently open land and would materially urbanise the site and its surroundings through buildings, estate roads, traffic, parking, lighting, highway infrastructure, gardens, boundaries and domestic activity.
Its Green Belt acceptability must be tested rigorously against the current national NPPF, including Policies GB6, GB7 and GB8, rather than assuming that a grey-belt designation would automatically render development acceptable.
The sustainability of the location must be assessed against national Policy TR3 and South Bucks Core Policy 7, having regard to the actual availability and practicality of alternatives to private-car travel.
The transport evidence must satisfy national Policy TR6 and the applicable local development plan policies, including saved South Bucks Policies TR5 and TR7. Particular attention must be given to the proposed principal access because of the bend, road geometry, available visibility and the existing residential driveway directly opposite. The opposing driveway must be explicitly incorporated into the technical assessment. The evidence should address simultaneous vehicle movements, visibility from the existing driveway, swept paths, vehicles waiting to turn, refuse and servicing vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, existing access protection and the geometry of the bend. The Parish Council considers that theoretical compliance with a visibility splay measured solely from the proposed development access would not, without proper assessment of the existing driveway opposite, demonstrate that the complete access arrangement is safe. The development must also be assessed in its realistic cumulative context using current transport and infrastructure evidence.
The proposal would cause a substantial change to the rural settlement-edge character of Plough Lane and would introduce additional artificial lighting and activity into presently open land. These effects engage saved Policies EP3 and H9 and the relevant design, green-infrastructure and Dark Skies provisions of the Stoke Poges Neighbourhood Plan.
The Parish Council acknowledges the housing benefits of the proposal but considers that those benefits do not outweigh the identified Green Belt, sustainability, highway-safety, infrastructure, character, landscape and environmental concerns when the development plan and material considerations are considered as a whole.
The Parish Council therefore requests that planning permission be refused. If Buckinghamshire Council is nevertheless minded to approve the application, the Parish Council requests that the application is determined by the appropriate Planning Committee rather than under delegated powers and that Members undertake a site visit before determination.
A site visit is particularly important in this case because it would allow Members to observe directly the character and geometry of Plough Lane, the position of the proposed development access in relation to the bend, the existing residential driveway directly opposite, the available visibility in both directions, pedestrian conditions and the physical constraints of the highway network.