Application lodged to turn former builders' merchant site into mini housing estate in Milton Keynes

THE former site of a builders’ merchants could be transformed into a housing estate.

Azuka Investments in Luton has submitted to Milton Keynes Council a planning application for the former Travis Perkins site on Simpson Road in Fenny Stratford.

Plans detail the demolition of the existing disused building supplies warehouse and the construction of 103 residential properties (71 market flats, 32 affordable houses).

A new vehicle access and egress from Simpson Road to Lock View Lane is also proposed – as is 150 parking spaces, including 15 along Simpson Road itself.

The scheme has been amended following “extensive consultation”, documents state. Increased parking, site access revisions, housing mix revisions, and design amendments were among those proposed.

“The feedback was generally positive. Delia Shephard of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council said that the proposed scheme looks much more appealing than at Millward Drive,” documents state.

It is understood the site has been vacant since August 2019. The applicant purchased the site two years ago and has made “several unsuccessful attempts to sell or lease” it.

The site is allocated for future housing in the Milton Keynes Local Plan. However, it is also “within an area at risk of flooding”, documents indicate.

Council officers will now decide what becomes of the application.

Last April, police officers discovered what was believed to be the city biggest ever hydroponic factory running in the disused Travis Perkins building.

All the plants were seized from the 10,000 sq ft building.