The film studio planning application will be considered by Buckinghamshire Council’s Strategic Sites Planning Committee at its meeting, starting at 1:00pm on 23 October 2023. The Committee will be held in The Oculus at The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP19 8FF.
Members of the public are welcome to observe the meeting but the seating is limited. However, the meeting will be available to watch via a livestream broadcast on the Buckinghamshire Council website.
You can see the agenda and documents online here. The officer’s report is the first document on the list. While still accepting some of Dido Property Limited’s wishful thinking at face value, the officer’s recommendation to the committee is to refuse the application.
The proposal will lead to very substantial harm to the Green Belt adversely affect the setting of the Chilterns AONB and landscape character of the area. The impact on the highway network and the environment is substantially negative. Overall, notwithstanding the benefits of the scheme taken together, it is considered that the
benefits do not “clearly outweigh” the Green Belt and other harm. The applicant has not demonstrated ’very special circumstances’ to justify inappropriate development in the Green Belt for the purposes of paragraph 148 of the NPPF.
We can only hope that the councillors (including Marlow’s Neil Marshall) on the committee follow the advice of the officer.