The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM) included plans to develop the 132 acres of Green Belt land currently leased to Maidenhead Golf Club in its Borough Local Plan (BLP) for 2013-2033.
The golf course land, which is a ten minute walk from the town centre, is home to hundreds of mature oak trees and provides habitat for a variety of wildlife. This rich biodiversity includes protected and threatened species like slow worms, bats, hedgehogs, red kites and badgers, as well as, owls, roe deer, foxes, woodpeckers and other woodland birds, butterflies, bees, bumblebees, stag beetles, toads, grass snakes, moths and red kites.
The land was originally owned by Lord Desborough and was gifted to the people of Maidenhead for leisure in 1953. Sadly despite many years of searching by local campaign groups, including Braywick Action Group, the paperwork which describes the covenant on the land has never been found.
Maidenhead Golf Club leases the land from RBWM and their current lease is due to expire in 2039. But in June 2016 it was reported in the Maidenhead Advertiser that Maidenhead Golf Club would receive £12million to give up its lease within seven years. The sum was said to rise to £16.25million if the club was to leave the site within three years. In addition, the club was to longer pay the council rent, which was £115,000 a year.
In June 2018, following concerns raised by local groups, first stage examination hearings were held by planning inspector Louise Phillips, looking at the viability of RBWM’s borough local plan, and critically whether or not it was right to develop of the Green Belt land of the golf course. In October 2020, the second stage hearings started and these hearings will finish on 18 November 2020.
In January 2020, a small group of people, including Cllr Geoff Hill, Tina Quadrino and Tara Sutthoff-Crist, shocked by plans to develop the greenspace of the golf course with over 2,000 homes, destroying wildlife habitats and removing Maidenhead’s ‘green lung’, started to promote the idea of instead turning it into a Great Park for everyone. They set up a Facebook group and began to recruit campaign supporters.
During lockdown, the golf course was closed but many local people discovered the beauty of the golf course for the first time and enjoyed walking through the parkland to take their daily exercise. Since then, the Facebook group has grown to over 1900 members.
In June 2020, the campaign group launched a petition asking RBWM to create Maidenhead Great Park on the golf course land, rather than developing it for housing.
The petition states that: ‘Maidenhead Great Park will conserve and protect the trees and rolling parkland of Maidenhead Golf Course. This ‘green lung’ will then continue
to combat climate change, increase biodiversity, improve air quality and the physical and mental health of all those who live and work in this rapidly expanding town.’
The petition currently has over 2,500 signatures and will run until 10 December. https://petitions.rbwm.gov.uk/MheadGreatPark/