Following a successful public fundraising campaign for the initial legal fees needed, the Maidenhead Great Park Community Interest Company has today (22 March 2022) promoted and funded filing for a statutory challenge of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead’s (RBWM) Borough Local Plan (BLP).
The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead’s BLP was voted for adoption at an Extraordinary Council Meeting on 8 February 2022, despite seventeen local councillors voting to reject the environmentally damaging plan.
Tina Quadrino, chair of the Maidenhead Great Park campaign group, explains:
“Many people in Maidenhead are utterly dismayed by our council’s adoption of the environmentally damaging Borough Local Plan, which will see thousands of flats and houses built on greenspaces in our town over the next 10 years, including 2,000 on green belt land at Maidenhead Golf Course, 600 on land south of Harvest Hill Road, 330 at Spencer’s Farm and 270 in Cookham.
Over a decade of major construction work
“As well as losing vital green space, trees and wildlife habitats, over a decade of intensive construction work will mean much more traffic, noise, stress, flooding and air pollution for the people of Maidenhead and surrounding villages. There will also be increasing pressure on local infrastructure and health services.
“Since RBWM’s adoption of the BLP, thanks to the generous support of the local community, we have appointed legal representation to take RBWM’s processes around the adoption of its Borough Local Plan to a statutory challenge.
“We are sad and deeply disappointed that we have had to take this step, but our council has consistently failed to listen to the concerns of local people regarding the damaging effects the Borough Local Plan will have on the local environment, and on the people of Maidenhead and surrounding villages.
Our council has let us down
“Our council has let us down by adopting a plan that will see hundreds of acres of green belt land developed. With this action, we are standing up for local people and future generations who will benefit from the protection of their precious greenspace.
More community support is needed
“To continue this legal work, we desperately need more support from the community. Please help us to protect greenspace by supporting our Go Fund Me campaign, which now seeks to raise a further £15,000 for the legal action we are promoting against our council.“In the meantime, working with other local groups campaigning against the destruction of their local greenspace, we will continue to raise awareness of the damage this massive over-development of our town will do to our community.”
To donate to the campaign, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/maidenhead-great-park
Other ways to support our campaign:
- Come to our golf course footpath protest on Earth Day Friday 22 April at 6.30pm https://maidenheadgreatpark.co.uk/join-our-footpath-protest-on-earth-day
- Sign our petition asking our council to improve its measurement of health damaging air pollution https://rbwm.moderngov.co.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=2163&RPID=8212844&HPID=8212844
