Buckinghamshire Council defers film studios decision

Plans for the controversial Marlow Film Studios were put on ice as Buckinghamshire council chose to defer a final decision for at least five months.

In a close vote at yesterday’s (October 23) strategic sites committee, it was decided more time was needed to assess and resolve the development’s impacts.

The 10 councillors present were split evenly on a motion to defer, at the meeting which also saw the narrow defeat of a separate vote to refuse the application.

Meeting chairman councillor Allan Turner, (Con, The Risboroughs), who had the deciding say in both votes, said that deferring was the ‘safest route.’

He said: “I’m the last person who wants to see greenbelt disappear and I think it’s very important that we all fight, in our own way, very hard to keep it.

“I’m also minded of the impacts, not just the negative impacts but the positive impacts, of what a development might bring forward and I don’t feel that I’m ready to make a safe decision.”

However, Wing ward councillor, Peter Cooper (Lib Dem) said: “For me, the main consideration is the greenbelt, and for that reason I don’t think deferring is going to help.”

Bucks council's officers' report recommended refusal, citing ‘significant’ harm to the greenbelt.

The report highlighted a ‘clear conflict’ with the Little Marlow Country Park policy, in addition to ‘the potential to adversely affect’ the Burnham Beeches Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

Campaigners for Save Marlow's Greenbelt (SMG) decried the studios at the meeting. Chairman Richard Sherwin said that while the benefits of the studios were 'uncertain', its harms were 'certain'.

On behalf of the proposals, planning consultant, Mark Schmull, said: “Greenbelt policy doesn’t say no to development, it requires very special circumstances to be demonstrated to clearly outweigh the harms.

“We’ve put forward a case which goes beyond the officers' report, where we feel the very special circumstances do outweigh the harms.”

National Highways and Bucks council’s highways authority alsorecommended the multi-million pound development not be granted planning permissionas it currently stands.

Councillor for Marlow, Neil Marshall (Con) argued the council were ‘not in a position to approve the application.’

He asked whether resolving issues including the Burnham Beeches SAC and the highways objections would change the balance of the planning officer’s report.

In response, council lead planning consultant, John Fannon, said it was ‘broadly’ true that addressing these points would impact the council’s report ‘to a certain degree.’

He added: “I would draw your attention to my conclusion in the report, where I do say the balance here doesn’t necessarily rely on the result on highways issue.

“There’s very significant concerns in relation to greenbelt harm, landscape harm and the conflict with the Little Marlow Country Park allocation.

“It’s not considered that necessarily changing the position related to highways would change the balance.”