News

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?

The Marlow Film Studio project, and other developments, claim they will provide jobs for local people but do we need more local jobs?

The Office of National Statistics provides data about the Wycombe District (the smallest granularity available in the dataset). In 2020, there were 98,000 jobs available. However, there were only 92,400 people wanting to work. That’s everyone who is “economically active”, which means people who work or people who are classed as unemployed (i.e. available for work). There is therefore a shortfall of over 5,000 jobs that have no workers available to do them.

In addition, Buckinghamshire only has an unemployment rate of 3% (data from February 2022). The national average is 4.3% and places like Birmingham are struggling with unemployment of over 9%.

This is not an area that needs job creation and building a studio here does not support the government’s Levelling Up agenda to spread opportunity more equally across the UK.

Some of the jobs that Dido Property Limited (Guernsey) have been claiming will be created here included chefs, accountants and teachers. Search Indeed.com for those jobs within 5 miles of Marlow and you will find hundreds available already.

Many local businesses are currently struggling to fill vacant positions. We do not need more jobs here. We do not need to sacrifice Marlow’s Greenbelt for it.

There are many fancy and green artists impressions of the Marlow Film Studio project floating around, but what does a real film studio actually look like?

First of all, these are busy, utilitarian workspaces: large warehouse structures, with storage areas; a continuous 24/7 flow of deliveries & tradespeople; and security fences because production companies don’t want you snooping around!

Let’s do a visual reality check. For example, this is a snapshot of Pinewood:

A similar look in Shinfield, with large structures and a security fence on the right:

So, what might our view be from the A4155?

Or the footbridge over the A404?

All evidence of large film studio complexes points to a far less glamourous picture than the expensive marketing tries to paint. Don’t fall for it and help others see the reality.

Much has been written, mainly by the film industry and commercial property developers, about the need for more film studio space in the UK. A 2018 report by PwC put the figure at 0.9 million square feet more; a 2021 report by Lambeth Smith Hampton claimed 2.3 m sq ft was needed to meet demand by 2033.

So, how much is needed then? Thankfully, The Studio Map has area information on all 70+ studios and a helpful page listing all planned new stages in the UK.

We scraped the data and the following picture emerges:

The pipeline of planned projects already exceeds the anticipated demand by 2033. Many of these projects are expansions of existing studios or conversions of brownfield (industrial) sites.

What happens if there is overcapacity in the sector and studios stand empty? Well, there is an example: around 2010-2012, a planning application was approved to convert the then empty Bray Film Studios into housing. (In the end, Bray just received approval to expand their film studios.)

Why should we risk excess capacity on our Greenbelt? There are plenty of industrial sites across the UK more suited to this type of proposal.

You might have heard the terms “Greenbelt” and “Local Plan” being used in relation to the development threats. We want to make sure you know what they mean and why they exist.

Greenbelt

When people hear “Greenbelt”, they think of lush green fields, full of biodiversity. That may be the case, but the National Planning Policy Framework sets out the 5 specific purposes in a very pragmatic way. They are:

(a) to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas;
(b) to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another;
(c) to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment;
(d) to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns; and
(e) to assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land.

None of these require high quality or biodiverse land. Marlow’s Greenbelt ensures that Marlow retains its character as a historic town with easy access to the countryside.

Local Plan

The Local Plan identifies specific sites for development & protection. As recently as 2019, (then) Wycombe District Council adopted the current Local Plan, covering the period 2019-2033. It explicitly states in section 5.5.20 (on page 222): “The whole of the area of the Little Marlow Lakes Country Park lies within the Green Belt”. It also shows the majority of the area is in the Thames flood plain and right next to the Chilterns AONB.

Policy RUR4 (on page 223) makes clear that the Country Park is allocated for outdoor recreation, publicly accessible open space and that “planning permission will not be granted for development within the Country Park that that has an adverse effect upon the amenities”.

Now you too know the multiple reasons why there should be no development of the sort proposed allowed in Marlow’s Greenbelt. Remind the councillors, the developers and tell your friends, family and neighbours.

Thank you to those who attended the meeting on Friday 1st April to hear the facts about Marlow’s Greenbelt and all the current threats to it. We were pleased to welcome about a hundred locals to our public meeting at Liston Hall.

The session provided information about several planned development projects in the wider Marlow area and then offered opportunities for members of the public to ask questions. Some local councillors attended but no one representing the developers was able to make it.

One attendee commented afterwards: “I came to [the] meeting quite ambivalent about the Film Project. …My view was quite turned around by your presentation. …This is an outrageous plan… [and] has to be stopped.”

We have received great feedback about how informative and insightful it was. If you have any further questions, please email us.

Join Save Marlow’s Greenbelt on Friday 1st April at 7:30 pm in Liston Hall for our first public meeting.

Discussions will be about the current threats to our Greenbelt, fact-checking assumptions and the chance for you to tell us how you can help.

We hope to see you there!

Please spread the word & bring a friend. All opinions are welcome and respected.

Did you or someone you know or a local business benefit from the “Star Wars” film set in Little Marlow last year? Were you employed? Did you provide any services? We would love to hear from you, as we want to understand what local jobs or improvements are genuinely available.

Please do let us know by emailing contact@savemarlowsgreenbelt.org

Two planning applications have been submitted by Savills for the area near the Spade Oak Nature Reserve: one on behalf of Buckinghamshire Council to delay the return to nature of the area by 5 years and one on behalf of Modul-Systems Ltd for a commercial van parking and storage development.

Please respond to both planning applications by 4th March via the links above. Don’t forget to register your stance as OBJECT.

We encourage everyone to write their own text and reasons, but here are some salient points to consider:

• There is no reason to postpone the required restoration by a further 5 years, other than to allow the van parking application to be approved. There appears to be no clear management plan going forward and the restoration should have been enforced by Bucks Council and carried out by the previous landowner.
• The site is a known valuable wildlife habitat for protected species. Insufficient surveying has been undertaken or information gathered, to accurately protect or mitigate for the proposed development.
• Further delays in the investment and enhancement of the Country Park area, will cause a loss of opportunity for the local community amenity value and provision for green open spaces to promote health and wellbeing.
• The commercial van parking and storage development contravenes policy RUR4 in the current Local Plan adopted in 2019, and is inappropriate development in a Green Belt area. No special circumstances have been demonstrated. The claim that this is effectively “brown field land” because Bucks Council hired it out to a filming company last year is misleading! If these applications get approved they will contravene national and local planning policy.
• For the van parking and storage, the claim there are no alternative sites is untrue and unsubstantiated.
• Any development with fences, lighting and security presence, plus the continuous traffic will pose risk of significant harm to the protected wildlife on the site and in the adjacent nature reserve.
• The alleged benefits funded by the development are vague in description, costing and timing – and there is little track record to demonstrate that either the applicant or Bucks Council will deliver on it.

Don’t forget to write to your Bucks councillors, especially Cllr J Towns, Cllr D Johncock and Cllr D Watson, to ask them to oppose this planning application!

Thank you very much for taking the time to do this – the more objections, the better! Once the land is built on, it will be lost forever.

Monday 7th Feb – 10.00am – 12.00pm, Marlow FM will be interviewing one of the developers for the proposed Marlow Film Studio project. Representatives from Wild Marlow and Save Marlow’s Greenbelt were given the opportunity to pre-record their views and concerns. Marlow FM would also like to hear from local residents.

If you have concerns or questions you’d like answering, please send them to Info@marlowfm.co.uk