Who owns the golf course land?
The land was bequeathed to the people of Maidenhead by Lord Desborough for leisure use. It is owned by the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead and leased to Maidenhead Golf Club.
Is the land Green Belt?
Yes.
How can it be built on if it’s Green Belt?
Our council is asking to be given permission to build on the golf course land through the Borough Local Plan. This is currently being reviewed by planning inspector Louise Phillips. She will decide if the ‘special circumstances’ our council argues in order to develop the land should be upheld or not.
People need homes, so if the new homes aren’t built on the golf course, where should they be built?
There are many brownfield sites available for development and more are coming forward all the time, as the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the trend towards home-working and shopping online. And the Objectively Assessed Need for new homes in our borough has been halved, taking it down to 6,382. Close to 6,000 new homes have already been built or given planning permission in our borough since 2013, so we have nearly reached that target anyway.
We need more affordable housing and by building more homes the prices will come down?
House prices aren’t simply a reflection of supply and demand. Decades of low interest rates have played their part, as well as the way property developers control the release of housing stock. Building on the golf course is not going to provide many more affordable homes. But it will take away the opportunity for Maidenhead to have a significant area of public open greenspace which will boost the health and environment for everyone living in our town for generations to come.
Our council says it has nowhere else to build because of flood risk?
Climate change is increasing flood risk, making more sites in the Maidenhead area unsuitable for development. So our council says the golf course land is the only place they can build more houses. But the Objectively Assessed Need has been halved and a proper assessment must be been done on how many brownfield sites are now available in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic before any more greenspace is lost.
What is the Objectively Assessed Need (OAN)?
RBWM’s Borough Local Plan was based on central government assessments of the number of new homes needed in our area. These assessments were made in 2012. The government’s official population and household projections are generally updated every two years to take into account the latest demographic trends. In July 2020 the Planning Inspector published a new Household Projections assessment (based on the latest 2018 data), halving the estimated number of homes required for the BLP term (2013-2033) from 14,240 down to 6,382.
Is it true that RBWM wants to build more houses than our borough needs to meet the needs of another borough?
RBWM published a response to the inspector’s revised Household Projections assessment, which included an item on ‘Green Belt release’ (point 40). In it they said ‘…the planned housing could contribute towards the unmet housing needs of Slough Borough (within the West Berkshire Housing Market Area)…’
What is the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the need for housing in the borough?
It’s too early to say, but pre-Covid a number of office sites within our borough had already been sold for residential conversion, including Moorbridge Court opposite Waitrose in Maidenhead. It is obvious that the coronavirus pandemic has massively accelerated changes in working practices. Lots of companies have now abandoned their London offices, so there is likely to be much less demand on Cross Rail in the future. People working from home need access to local green space where they live, to ensure that they can look after their physical and mental health needs.
Our council has declared a climate & environment emergency so surely building on Green Belt land is incompatible with achieving these objectives?
Yes, the council identified in its own draft Environment & Climate strategy2 ‘the quality of life and the role of the natural environment in creating great places is a critical part of the success of the borough economy, and to our residents’ health and wellbeing’. It also states, ‘Conserving and sustainably managing biodiversity is also critical to addressing climate change.’ Key objectives in the council’s own strategy under Theme 3 are to ‘protect and enhance our natural environment, green our towns and urban areas and increase awareness of biodiversity’.
There are already lots of parks in Maidenhead so why do we need more?
Our town is growing. Close to 6,000 new homes have been built or granted planning in our borough since 2013, and many of them are flats in Maidenhead town centre. We know access to greenspace is important for our physical and mental health and wellbeing – especially for children. And the coronavirus has highlighted the importance of access to local greenspace. Maidenhead Great Park would be just a 10 minute walk from our town centre, making it accessible without the need to drive there.
Our borough is already one of the greenest boroughs in the country so why do we need to create another park?
We are lucky to have Windsor Great Park and Saville Gardens in our borough, but people in Maidenhead have to drive to get there. And these are Crown Estate lands so access is limited to certain areas. We also drive to places like Cliveden, Higginson Park in Marlow and Cookham Moor. But if we are to meet Climate targets (halving our carbon emissions by 2030 and going to net zero by 2050), reducing the amount of car journeys we make will play an important part. The Thames Valley is already over-developed and suffering from poor air quality. It’s time to place the highest value on all the greenspace in our borough.
It’s a just golf course, so why is it so important to save?
Close to half the 132 acre area occupied by the golf course is populated with mature trees. As well as providing important habitats for a huge variety of animals, insects and birds, it provides habitat for a number of protected species, including bats, badgers, hedgehogs, red kites and slow worms. As well as being important for biodiversity, this greenspace plays an important role in cleaning our air. It’s Maidenhead’s green lung. As well as absorbing carbon dioxide, trees remove particulate matter from our air. Fine particulate matter can easily penetrate into the human respiratory system, causing lung and heart diseases. If the golf course became a park, we could improve wildlife habitats and better protect biodiversity through careful management, including water capture. And we could also increase carbon sequestering with tree planting and better soil management.
Is there an economic case for a new park?
Yes. A good environment creates a good economy. Businesses are more likely to want to invest in Maidenhead and town centre flats are more likely to sell if residents know there’s an amazing Great Park on their doorstep.
The value of the mature trees for carbon capture must be taken into account, as well as the value to public health of the amenity. The Fields in Trust estimate parks are worth £974 a year to each person in terms of life satisfaction, and nationally in health alone parks and greenspaces save the government at least £111 million per year through prevented GP visits. The London Mayor’s Environment Strategy places a value of £5 billion a year for the improvement of public health provided by green spaces.
What will happen if the Green Belt is upheld and the golf club decides to stay?
The golf club’s lease runs until 2039. If they did decide to stay, we would like to work with them to increase public access to the site and improve habitat management.
What will happen if the golf course green lung isn’t saved?
Our town’s air quality will decline, both from the loss of the trees and the greenspace, but also from all the extra new homes and cars. The character of our town will be fundamentally altered with new tower blocks on the hill alongside Shoppenhanger’s Road. Many animals, birds and insects will be lost, including bats, owls, native roe deer, badgers, foxes, green woodpeckers, lesser spotted woodpeckers, many types of woodland birds, butterflies, bees, bumblebees, stag beetles, toads, grass snakes, moths and red kites.
And critically we will have the lost opportunity to use this space to improve the health of the residents of our growing town, to protect biodiversity and to plant more trees to reduce the impact of climate change.
If you are successful, how will the park be funded?
The land is owned by the people of Maidenhead so we don’t need to buy it. The management of the park could be funded through a mixture of public, charitable and commercial funding streams. Commercial revenue streams could include the existing golf course club house restaurant and car park, and a nine-hole municipal golf course. There are many charitable trusts providing funds for environmental and education projects, including conservation work, tree planting, etc. We could also crowd fund or raise bonds to bring in revenue from private investors.
What happens when your petition closes?
Any petition with over 1,500 signatures can be debated at a Full Council meeting. We plan to ask for that to happen early in the New Year.
References