Marlow Town Council finally comes off the fence… and falls flat on its face

Marlow Town Council has finally revealed its position on Marlow Film Studios. Well, kind of …

Cllr Richard Scott claims that his personal letter to Bucks Planning Authority represents Marlow Town Council’s decision to support the film studio. However, the so-called “decision” was made “informally” behind closed doors without a Clerk being present.

So … not actually an MTC decision then, just an agreement between a few chums with no relevance to the final decision that will be taken by Bucks Council.

The film studio is a huge local issue, so why wasn’t it debated at a regular council meeting according to statutory procedures so that members of the public could hear the arguments and express their views? Too democratic for them?

The fact that Marlow Town Council isn’t a statutory consultee is irrelevant – even Cookham Parish Council took a formal vote on the planning application and submitted a well-argued letter of objection signed by their Clerk.

In contrast, Cllr Scott’s rambling letter reads like one of the film studio’s PR releases. There is no scrutiny of the alleged benefits, no consideration of Greenbelt legislation. Cllr Colleen Stapley, as chair of their Environment and Wellbeing Committee, chooses to ignore the harm that the studio will cause to the local environment or the impact that 4,000 extra cars will have on our wellbeing and air quality. They can’t even get the facts straight – there will be 30 trainee places per year, not the 300 that Cllr Scott quotes.

If the council members had looked carefully at the statistics, they would realise that the majority of local people do actually object to the development. Most of the letters of support have been emailed in from outside the area (including one from MFS Director Robert Laycock’s mummy).

These are your elected representatives. Tell them your views and use your next vote wisely. And continue to object.