The golf club has voted to leave

We were extremely sad and disappointed to hear that eligible members of Maidenhead Golf Club voted to accept the Council’s offer to quit their lease early to make way for 2,000 new flats and houses. 

Two hundred and nineteen members voted to accept the deal, while 43 voted against. The £15.95million deal commits the golf club to leave the site by the end of 2025.  The members were given little choice to give up their 125 year history following threats from our council to Compulsory Purchase them out of their lease.

The planning inspector is assessing responses

In the meantime, the planning inspector Louise Philips is assessing the latest responses to the ‘Main Modifications Consultation’ for the Borough Local Plan (1). Once the Inspector has been sent all the comments on the Main Modifications, she will consider them prior to submitting her final report along with her finalised Main Modifications to the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM).  The Council will then seek to get its plan formally adopted at a future Full Council meeting.

We will continue to oppose this damaging plan

We wanted to let all those who have supported our campaign know that we will continue to oppose this damaging, short-sighted plan to build on our precious greenbelt land.  We plan to organise a series of events and campaigns highlighting the reasons why this development will damage our town and our children’s futures. 

In summary, by forcing a massive new development on 132 acres of wooded parkland, our council will:

  1. Increase traffic and damaging air pollution in our town at a time when our local air quality already frequently fails to meet UK Government air quality objectives;
  2. Destroy vital wildlife habitats at a time when we already face a catastrophic loss of wildlife in this country, with populations of the UK’s most important wildlife having plummeted by an average of 70% since 1970 (2); and
  3. Increase carbon emissions in our borough at a time when the Council itself has declared a Climate Emergency and pledged through its own Environment & Climate Strategy to reduce local carbon emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050 (3).

The role of the natural environment

Ironically, for anyone seeking to understand the consequences of the continued destruction of our environment, it is very clearly explained in our council’s own Environment & Climate strategy:

‘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.’ (3)

Keep in touch

Please do keep in touch with us via our Maidenhead Great Park Facebook group and page. Please share and comment on our posts, and support our ongoing campaigns to oppose this damaging and inappropriate development.

https://www.facebook.com/MaidenheadGreatPark

References

One thought on “The golf club has voted to leave

  1. Super well done Team… keep going we are right behind you, if we don’t try we will regret it for a lifetime. It is just crazy in this day and age with all our wisdom and knowing the effects of climate change that we have to fight so hard to save something that is so simple and yet so vulnerable!

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