If the planning inspector passes the Borough Local Plan (BLP) as legal, the next chance to stop our council’s damaging plan to put 2,000 plus dwellings on our precious greenspace at Maidenhead golf course, is when the BLP goes to Full Council for formal adoption.
If the council adopts the BLP, it will give them permission to build on the green belt land of the golf course. Remember they are using out-of-date housing need figures to justify this environmentally damaging plan (see point 4 below).
Urgent! Your children need you to act now!
Please help us to persuade our councillors to vote against adopting the plan by doing the following:
- Write to your local councillors to ask them not to adopt it. Tell them you won’t vote for them at the next election if they vote this damaging and controversial plan through. Here’s a link to the contact details for all RBWM councillors https://rbwm.moderngov.co.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1
- Come to our demonstration outside the Town Hall on Tuesday 23 November at 6.30pm. There is a Full Council meeting that night. We don’t yet know when the BLP will come to Full Council for adoption, but it’s possible it will be on that day. We will provide more details of the demonstration closer to the time.
Eight reasons why the golf course should remain protected green belt land
- Green Lung – this 132-acre area of green belt land is a vital green lung for our town, improving air quality and absorbing fine particulate matter from local roads. Local air quality already fails to meet UK Government air quality objectives. The local Conservative Party promised to ‘resist green belt release’ in its 2019 manifesto. Now they are saying they have to take the golf course green belt to save the rest of it, and they are using out of date housing need figures to justify it.
- Biodiversity – the golf course is rich in wildlife, including many protected and threatened species like slow worms, bats, hedgehogs, kestrels and red kites. Britain is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world with one in seven species facing extinction (1), so it’s vital we protect remaining habitats.
- We are in a Climate Crisis – the golf course is home to thousands of mature trees, providing shade and absorbing carbon dioxide – vital tools for helping us to mitigate against the worst effects of climate change. In its own Environment & Climate Strategy (2), our council says: ‘The role of the natural environment in creating great places is critical to the success of the borough economy and to our residents’ health and wellbeing, therefore it is important we take steps to protect it. In addition to their intrinsic value, wildlife and ecosystems provide essential services on which we all depend; clean air and water, crop production through soil formation and pollination services, pest control, essential human health services and climate regulation.’
- We don’t need so many homes – our council is justifying destroying our greenspace by using out-of-date figures for housing need. They are using Objectively Assessed Need (OAN) figures released in 2012. But OAN assessments based on 2018 figures, reduced the need for our borough by half, down to 6,382 (3). We’ve already got over 6,000 new homes, and any new affordable homes should be built sustainably on brownfield sites. And although the BLP shows the need for 14,240 new dwellings (using 2012 housing need figures), the Housing Supply table in the latest (modified) version of the BLP shows an actual projected provision of 15,948. This would be an oversupply of 1,708 more dwellings than the original, already inflated, figure – that’s nearly all the homes they are planning for the golf course and it’s 249% of the 2018 objectively assessed need!
- History – in 1953 the mayor, Cllr T.A. Stuchberry bought the golf club land ‘To prevent this land falling into the hands of those less concerned about its future than local people’. The land was then offered to the council, who took the same view that this land was scheduled as open space, and that public ownership was the best way of ensuring that it remained an open space.
- Water storage & flooding – according to our council’s own Climate Strategy (2), ‘the Thames Valley region is classed as seriously water stressed’. Will there be an adequate water supply for the growing number of Maidenhead residents? Also during times of heavy rainfall, the golf course soaks up large amounts of water. Our town centre will be more exposed to flood risk if this land is developed.
- We’ve already lost greenspace – around a third of Braywick Park’s green space has been developed in the last five years and other pockets of greenspace across our town have been swallowed up by development. It’s vital the greenspace of the golf course is protected to ensure our town remains an attractive and healthy place to live.
- Buying the golf club out is a bad deal – our council is spending close to £16million to force the golf club out of its lease. This is a very bad deal for the people of Maidenhead. We are spending £16million to remove a viable council tenant, and we are losing our precious greenspace at the same time. The council argues it needs the money from the sale of the golf course to pay off its debts, but this is a short term strategy which will damage our environment. If we don’t have a good environment, we won’t have a strong local economy and our children will ultimately pay the price.
References
1. State of Nature 2016 report https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/documents/conservation-projects/state-of-nature/state-of-nature-uk-report-2016.pdf
2. ‘Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Environment and Climate Strategy 2020-2025’ https://www.rbwm.gov.uk/media/2288/download
3. Planning Inspector’s documents, 2018 Household Projections Letter July 2020 ID-15 https://www.rbwm.gov.uk/home/planning/planning-policy/emerging-plans-and-policies/draft-borough-local-plan/examination-local-plan/inspectors-documents
1 comment