A REVISED plan to convert the former Cottage Bookshop in Elm Road, Penn into two flats has been agreed subject to council planning officers agreeing a minor issue over screening with the developers this week.
The famous bookshop, visited regularly by Sir Terry Pratchett as a lad and thought to be the inspiration for some of the scenes in his novels, closed two years ago and was bought by local man Daniel Upward. His original plan for conversion was approved last year but work stopped when he wanted a revised design introducing new front porches and altered windows.
The council planning officers recommended the revision and the council’s Historic Buildings Officer said the new plan was an improvement on the old because the new look would fit in better with the neighbouring properties in the Penn and Tylers Green Conservation Area.
However four neighbours, supported by representatives of the Penn and Tylers Green Residents’ Society and the Chiltern Society, objected to elements of the design and concern about neighbours’ privacy.
A number of conditions have been attached to the planning permission.
Coronavirus update
- The number of new Covid cases in our immediate area continued to decline yesterday, although medical officials are quick to point out that it is unwise to read too much into single day’s figures. In Wycombe/Chiltern/South Bucks area on Tuesday there were 289 new cases. Yesterday the figure in the three areas was 199. Seven people who had tested positive in the past 28 days died from Covid-19 on Monday in Bucks.
- Meanwhile, the number of daily new Covid admissions to hospitals in London and the south east fell for the first time since before Christmas yesterday, although our three local hospitals, Wycombe, Stoke Mandeville and Wexham Park remain on Critcon 3 alert, meaning they are on the brink of being overwhelmed.
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Flytipper jailed – A Slough man who dumped building waste in The Greenway, Tylers Green as well as a number of other sites in south Buckinghamshire has been jailed for 21 months and banned from driving. Reading Crown Court heard that Mohammed Afzal, aged 65, had been jailed before for fly-tipping. “He simply continued to dump so he could earn a few pounds and couldn’t care less about the expense it caused the taxpayer,” said Judge Paul Dugdale. Afzal admitted the offences.
Trees destroyed – More than 500 ash trees on National Trust land at Cliveden and Maidenhead/Cookham Common are being felled because of Ash Die Back disease. Several others away from public areas are being left to die naturally to encourage wildlife. The trust says older ash trees seem to be surviving the disease. New trees are being replanted. Meanwhile parish councillors were told this week that another 20 trees in King’s Wood, Tylers Green have been identified with the disease.