Planning decisions are made for our county by Buckinghamshire Council. We have been hearing lately about Little Marlow Parish Council or Marlow Town Council being consultees for development projects but they will not be the bodies determining if planning permission is granted.
Local councils are generally entitled to have an opinion on projects and have a duty to represent the views and best interests of their area. Some Buckinghamshire councillors who sit on planning committees may have to be careful not to give an opinion in advance of receiving all the facts (in case they are considered to be “pre-determined”) but for councillors who aren’t members of a Buckinghamshire planning committee, this is not a relevant consideration.
Some councillors in the area have expressed an opinion, however, none of the Marlow Town or Buckinghamshire councillors have publicly shared their thoughts.
This is concerning as Marlow Town Council have apparently have had off-the-record meetings with developers at the Crowne Plaza hotel and received a tour of the site as part of the Community Board. There is propaganda about the proposed film studio being circulated to thousand of local residents by the PR agency working for Dido Property Limited (Guernsey) and some councillors have been involved in the Community Liaison Group run by the developers.
It is inconceivable that our elected representatives have no opinion about something that would so fundamentally change Marlow, especially after all the information they have received. Why won’t they share their views?
Write to your councillors, parish, town and unitary authority (Buckinghamshire) and ask them to publicly state their reasoned opinion. If Joy Morrissey MP can come out publicly to express her concern, why can’t they?
