The recent attempt to build three houses in Ellington Gardens is yet another chapter in the 12 year saga to prevent the Hermitage from being demolished and replaced with either blocks of flats or a housing estate. There is considerable doubt that if the developer was given permission that they would ever be built.
The key to the Hermitage site, owned by another developer, is Ellington Gardens which provides the only viable access to the Hermitage ground. Different developers now own the houses at both ends of Ellington Gardens and permission to infill between them would provide the much needed link between Ellington Road and the Hermitage. The two houses (both rented out) would then be demolished and the way is open. The Hermitage site would no longer be a backland filling but an infilling site which is unfortunately acceptable to the South Bucks Planners.
The Ellington and District Residents Association, led by Richard Dawson, has been in the forefront of the battle to stop this development which would overlook
all the houses in Ellington Road, Ellington Gardens and the North part of River Road. This fine old house is currently rented to the
MaST organisation who gave up the struggle to knock the place down and sold it to Church, a major development company, who then made several attempts to do the same. In part the decision by SBDC to declare the area a Conservation Area was aimed at preventing the demolition of the Hermitage.
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FredRussell - 20 Apr 2005
