What Was Promised

Pavilion Quarter was promised as a “cultural and entertainment district” on the site of the old Gala Bingo hall between the lower High Street and the Exchange Square car park. An artists impression of what Pavilion Quarter would look like is shown below [Source].

What Was Delivered

These are photos that I took shortly after Pavilion Quarter opened.

What was delivered was a small increase in car parking spaces in Exchange Square and a new walkway from the car park to the lower High Street. The boundary between the car park and the adjacent buildings was also cleaned up. The R2D2 mural at the back of Mendoza has been painted over and we have a new footpath.

The Verdict

I am positive on the result but I would question why it cost £5 million (the most recent project cost) to build a walkway and an extension to the car park. The cost of purchasing the Gala bingo site and other buildings was not included in the Pavilion Quarter project cost. Therefore the real cost is substantially higher.

Having a new path to the lower High Street should increase footfall and will be an enabler to further regeneration. The names of bands who performed in Aylesbury embossed into the paving is a nice touch.

I doubt that Phase 2 will ever happen. The new car park will remain a car park. No performing arts space will be created. And I am okay with that.

We do need further incremental work in the town centre but hopefully future projects will cost less and deliver more.

Development History

This site was subject to two previous approved planning applications.

• 12/00519/APP for construction of four maisonettes

• 19/04118/APP change of use to an Islamic cultural centre

Neither application was built. The charity behind the Islamic cultural centre found a different site elsewhere in Aylesbury.

The current owner of the site is a Special Purpose Vehicle limited company, A&M Aylesbury Ltd. I checked the accounts and ownership records and suspect another entity funded the purchase. The accounts show £183559 of tangible assets, which is presumably 15 Coxhill Way, and Creditors falling due after more than one year of £220996, which appears to be the funding source.

Small company accounts do not require much details so the funding is opaque. The source of the funding could be a mortgage, which is unlikely given the site and the accounts. The funding is more likely to be either loans from directors or another entity in a related group of companies.

The Development

This is what the site looked like in March 2025 following demolition.

The proposed development is a long thin set of flats that will occupy the entire site and extend to three stories. A three story wall will face the Bourg Walk bridge abutting the path.

The plans call for 4 x 2 bedroom apartments and 6 x 1 bedroom apartments. According to the plans, the development will be in two blocks but in reality it is a single development.

Issues That I Have With The Development

I welcome new housing in Aylesbury because we need additional homes, especially homes that are market affordable, which these will be. However there are significant issues with this development, which I outline below.

I encourage you to read PL/25/2911/FA and make your own mind up on whether this development is a good idea or not. On balance, I am against this particular development.

Parking

The development is listed as a zero car development, in-line with the local plan. Every other development in the town without some parking has caused parking issues. The 15 Coxhill Way site is bounded by two parking zones, the controlled parking zone in Coxhill Way / Grand Central (permit parking with enforcement), and the uncontrolled parking zone in Penn Road.

Residents at the proposed development will own cars, or have visitors with cars. That is inevitable. What will happen is spill over into both parking zones. Residents on Penn Road will face increased competition for scarce parking spots. The small residents car parking site at the end of Penn Road will become a battle ground.

Overdevelopment

Several objections have been raised about overdevelopment. Notably by the Town Council. The site is already in a dense zone but trying to shoehorn a three story building into a narrow site is a step too far.

You can see how small the site is from the ground level photos.

Construction Access

The only access to the site for construction vehicles will be via Coxhill Way. Coxhill way is a constrained road that can only be accessed by two bridges from Penn Road. Penn Road is difficult to navigate on a good day because of parked cars.

The construction of a three story building will required a very substantial number of lorry journeys. The concrete pour for the foundation could take a dozen concrete lorries.
There is also no provision in the plans for where trades vans will park whilst the first and second fix takes place. Because there is no on-site parking.

Geoffrey Perfect was a Buckinghamshire house builder between the 1970s and the 1990s. Under the trading name Geoffrey Perfect Homes, he built homes across the county. Sadly, the recession in the early 1990s made the business unviable and he retired.

Locations where Geoffrey Perfect Houses Can be Found

Geoffrey Perfect houses can be found in the following locations (that I know of) in Buckinghamshire.

• Beaconsfield

• Knotty Green

• Seer Green (Manor Farm)

• Penn

• Prestwood

• Stone (Cromanstone and The Spiert)

The Geoffrey Perfect Style

Geoffrey Perfect was an early system builder. He built houses according to patterns, often re-using the same patterns on multiple developments. The style evolved or was ornamented but the basic pattern and layouts persisted. Norman Stretton was the in-house architect for Geoffrey Perfect Homes. Norman drafted many of the plans and oversaw construction of the Manor Farm estate in Seer Green.

The example below is typical of Geoffrey Perfect houses. The plastic ornamental shutters are a tell-tale sign of his work. I think he bought a job lot of plastic shutters in the early 1980s and put them on every house he sold.

A Geoffrey Perfect house in Stone, Buckinghamshire.

At the time, Geoffrey Perfect houses were greatly derided by architects and residents. Until relatively recently, the houses traded at a discount to neighbouring houses, although prices have caught up as tastes changed. Snobbery caused many to overlook the merits of the houses and the developments that Geoffrey Perfect built.

The marketing brochure for Manor Farm in Seer Green shows the standard layouts of two detached home patterns. The layouts are well proportioned family homes with two bathrooms upstairs and a downstairs cloakroom in the porch. The downstairs featured a large lounge, separate dining room, kitchen and utility room.

Building according to a standard plan meant economies of scale. Materials were purchased in bulk to cut costs. The reuse of plans and materials makes the houses quite recognisable.

Many houses had innovative features such thermostatically controlled electric ceiling heating. Compared to modern (2020s) houses, the Geoffrey Perfect houses are spacious and situated on good sized plots with front and rear gardens and off street parking.

The photos below shows one of the streets in Seer Green. Detached houses face a green-space that is maintained by the Manor Farm management company. Garages and driveways are behind the houses in a utility street.

Barrards Way in Seer Green

Barrards Way in Seer Green

Geoffrey Perfect, and the houses that he built, have lessons that we can learn when new developments are built in Aylesbury and wider Buckinghamshire. The lessons that we should learn include:

• Off-street parking is required on all developments

• Use of perspective tricks breaks-up long streets of houses (see the picture above where houses are staggered around a curve)

• Good proportions and plot sizes make houses liveable and desirable

• Mature planting will soften the street scene in time

• The use of covenants and management companies ensures that the common areas are maintained

Manor Farm in Seer Green

I grew up in Seer Green on the Manor Farm estate. Manor Farm was Geoffrey Perfect’s most well-known development. The Manor Farm estate was built between 1978 and 1986 but villagers still refer to Manor Farm as the “new estate”. The size of the estate and the demographics of the new residents meant that there was a divide between old and new villagers. The divide has broken down as “old villagers” have left Seer Green but in the 1990s the village was socially divided in two.

The original marketing brochure (courtesy of the Manor Farm Estate management company) is shown below.

The plan of the development is shown below. There are two main access roads, from School Lane and from Long Grove. Several large areas of greenspace break up the development. The “greens” were originally all grass but residents got fed up with kids playing football. The Manor Farm management company planted bushes and trees to prevent ball games.

Most of the houses were three and four bedroom houses. Smaller houses were built around the large green between Wood Pond Close and Farmers Way.

I recently took a drive down to Seer Green to see how the estate had changed since I lived there. I was pleasantly surprised. The houses are neat and well maintained. The plants in green spaces has matured. Overall the development has stood the test of time. More photos below.

Detached House on Farmers Way

Terraced houses on the “green” on Farmers Way

The “green” showing the mature planting that was originally planted in the early 2000s

Detached house on Wood Pond Close the plastic ornamental shutters are still attached. The enclosed porch is a later addition.

Detached house on Wood Pond Close

Culvers Croft

Pictured below in happier times from Google maps street view.

The demolished building is shown in the red square on the map below.

There does not appear to have been a planning application for the demolition so the demolition came as a surprise to many. I found out about the demolition from a Facebook post on one of the local Facebook groups.

Buckinghamshire Council was engaged in enforcement action against the property owners over the state of the building. The building had been vandalised repeatedly in recent years and was in poor condition. It is possible that the demolition was an agreed action to remedy the enforcement action. However, that usually requires a minimal planning application before building demolition.

A close eye will need to be kept on future uses of the site. The back garden was turned into a car park for a local taxi firm in 2023. The taxis and minibuses are gone following the demolition. It is unclear what the site will be used for next. A change to commercial use may be appropriate but planning permission should be sought for change of use.

Here are photos of what the site looks like after demolition.

Roundabout to nowhere yet (From Buckinghamshire Council)

Aylesbury Link Road Plan

One of the main objections to new house building in Aylesbury is the traffic. In the past, large housing schemes such as Fairford Leys were built without significant upgrades of the road network. Inevitably a sharp increase in vehicle traffic. The road improvements are a long saga. This excerpt from Hansard (20 Mar 2007 Aylesbury Vale) shows David Liddington MP raising the issues with the Aylesbury road network.

Discussions on road improvements in Aylesbury date back to the 1980s. Several plans for major bypasses have been produced and abandoned. The latest plan is the link road system shown in the graphic below.

Aylesbury Link Road Plan (From Buckinghamshire Council)

The link road plan should solve some of the worst traffic bottlenecks once the following links are completed.

• South East Aylesbury Link Road and Southern Link Road (A41 to Lower Road)

• Stoke Mandeville Relief Road (Stoke Mandeville to the Wendover Bypass)

• South West Aylesbury Link Road (Stoke Mandeville to the A418 Oxford Road)

• Eastern Link Road (A41 to Kingsbrook)

Buckinghamshire Council has funding secured for the South East Aylesbury Link Road and construction has started. The Stoke Mandeville Relief Road is being built and funded by HS2.

South East Aylesbury Link Road

The South East Aylesbury Link Road comprises of

• A new roundabout on the A413 Wendover Road (between Hampden Hall and Bedgrove)

• A dual carriageway with a bridge across the railway line connecting the A413 and Lower Road

• A new roundabout on Lower Road near to the Belmore Centre

• A spur to connect to the Stoke Mandeville Relief Road and a new roundabout

The plan for the South East Aylesbury Link Road is shown below. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are under construction (March 2025). No date has been released for completion of the road but the road is likely to open in 2026.

Stoke Mandeville Relief Road

The Stoke Mandeville Relief Road bypasses Stoke Mandeville and links to the Princes Risborough road.

HS2 are building the road as part of the main HS2 civil works. The road is initially being used as a haul and access road for the HS2 works but will be turned over to Buckinghamshire Council once the HS2 work is complete. The Stoke Mandeville Relief Road comprises

• A new junction on the A4010 Risborough Road near the goat centre

• A single carriageway that crosses HS2 near to the Chiltern Line

• Connecting to Phase 2 of the South East Aylesbury Link Road and the new roundabout on Lower Road.

My only criticism of this scheme is that the bottleneck between the Terrick roundabout at the Wendover Bypass on Nash Lee Road is not fixed. Failing to use HS2 to fix the tangle of roads at Terrick is a big miss from the HS2 mitigation negotiations. I have heard rumours of a plan but I am yet to see anything made public.

Nash Lee road can be seen in the photo below. Cars are often (legally) parked on the left side of the photo all the way to the end of the houses. In peak times that causes traffic to queue in both directions. Nash Lee Road is an accident waiting to happen.

Hampden Fields Road Network

The Hampden Fields road network will consist of

• A new dual carriageway between the A413 Wendover Road and the A41 (Southern Link Road)

• A new road through Western neighbourhoods of Hampden Fields connecting the Southern Link Road and Marroway in Weston Turville

• Changes to New Road in Weston Turville to accommodate the Southern Link Road and the local centre in the Eastern neighbourhoods of Hampden Fields

The plan for the roads (taken from the design code document) is shown below.

Impact on Weston Turville

The plans understate the amount of change for residents of Weston Turville. This is my summary of the changes during construction and after construction.

• New Road will be temporarily severed between Weston Turville and the A41

• There will be no through road between Weston Turville and the A41 because New Road will be diverted around the new Hampden Fields local centre

• A new road junction on Marroway will connect to Hampden Fields and the Southern Link Road

Overall the changes to the road network will benefit Weston Turville in the long term by reducing the amount of through traffic. I have concerns about the impact of closing New Road on residents during construction because that cuts off a well used route out of the village.

I also do not like the proposed T-junction on Marroway. That junction will be heavily used by traffic coming from the Southern Link Road. The planners have not accounted for traffic diversion. A roundabout would be more appropriate than a T-junction because a roundabout would naturally slow traffic and improve circulation.

The location of the junction on Marroway is opposite the Pony Fields site. I can foresee significant changes to the Marroway junction in a future planning submission.

The location of the junction on Marroway can be seen in the photo below.

Progress to March 2025

The initial access to Hampden Fields West (the Wendover Road side) is open. Work has not started on the link road through Hampden Fields or the junction at the Tring road roundabout on the A41.

The roundabout on Lower Road is in an advanced state of progress. Work is planned at Easter and the May half term to complete the roundabout and associated changes to the road layout. See the SEALR bulletin for March for more details.

New Lower Road roundabout (From Buckinghamshire Council)

Buckinghamshire Council

Buckinghamshire Council responded with a redirection to Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOBICB).

Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOBICB)

Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOBICB) directed me to Buckinghamshire Council. I find this response evasive because the Integrated Care Board is directly responsible for these services. They should be able to respond without revealing commercially sensitive data.

FedBucks

I received no response from FedBucks.

Next Steps

I am going to rephrase the Freedom of Information requests and attempt a second submission. If I still get the run-around then I will be appealing to the Information Commissioners Office and writing to Laura Lyrke-Smith.

• Information that you hold on current plans for the provision of General Practice health services for residents of the Hampden Fields and Woodlands housing development

• Any information that you hold on the reconfiguration of General Practice health services in the south of Aylesbury, including Bedgrove, Weston Turville, Wendover, and Aston Clinton as a result of the Hampden Fields and Woodlands housing developments

• Any information or plans for the wider changes in the provision of General Practice health services in the Aylesbury Vale area that were initiated as a result of housing developments since 2020 or in future (up to 2030)

I will publish responses when I receive them. If they provide the reports that I want then I will publish analysis of the plans.

The local General Practice services have amalgamated under a limited company called FedBucks Ltd. I am seeking information from FedBucks Ltd but it is unclear whether they fall under the scope of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as a private limited company.

A new planning application for an Environmental Impact Assessment Screening Opinion was submitted to Buckinghamshire Council on 23 August 2024. The planning application reference is 24/02549/SO. All documents are available on the Buckinghamshire Council planning portal.

The application is Environmental Impact Assessment Screening which is an early stage in the planning process for large planning applications. More information about the process can be found here (Buckinghamshire Council)

Location Plan

The location plan can be seen below. I have annotated the plan to make it easier to locate there the plot is.

The Site is bounded by the Edge of Stoke Mandeville to the North, The Risborough Road to the West, the Wendover Road to the East, and the Chiltern View garden centre to the south. The site is bisected by the Chiltern railway line.

Master Plan

The master plan is shown below. The image was taken from the drawing submitted as part of the planning application.

The master plan scheme shows the following elements

• Two blocks of housing on either side of the railway line

• A new local centre with shops close to the Risborough road

• A strip of parkland between the fields and the new houses

On the Stoke Mandeville side, the new local centre forms an entrance into the development. Houses are clustered in a looped main road. A foot bridge allows residents to walk between the two halves of the development over the railway line.

On the Wendover road side, a single main road from the Weston Turville roundabout on the Wendover road roundabout provides access to the houses.

Access Roads

I attempted to create a better illustration of the road network with a free-hand overlay.

There are two access ways into the development. Entrance A from the Stoke Mandeville side is a new road to the South of the Wool Pack pub. Entrance B is a new junction on the Weston Turville roundabout on the Wendover road.

Entrance B looks appropriate because the existing roundabout will manage the extra traffic flow. Entrance A looks inadequate for the size of the development. A junction with lights or a roundabout may be required in the final plan.

Aylesbury Garden Town Rating

It is too early to provide a firm judgement but on the initial master plan, I give this development 4 out of 5.

These are the things that I liked

• The parkland should create a green barrier against further urban sprawl, hopefully preventing Stoke Mandeville from continuing the expand south towards the Wendover bypass

• 500 houses is a good level of density but not overwhelming

• The new local centre in Stoke Mandeville will provide services to a car centric area

• Proximity to the train station will reduce the reliance on cars

These are the things that I did not like

• The access road from the Risborough road is potentially a traffic bottle-neck. I would be concerned about the safety of a minor-road junction on an already busy road

• More detail will need to be included in the full planning application on provision of health and education services

• The development needs a design code that reflects the existing patterns in Stoke Mandeville. A big development of bright-red brick buildings with zero variation would be unwelcome