Top 6 Reasons to Create Maidenhead Great Park

Our campaign asks our council to create a new park for everyone on the 132 acres of publicly owned parkland currently leased by Maidenhead Golf Club, rather than developing it for housing.

The key reasons why we believe it is essential to save this greenspace from development are:

1. It will protect biodiversity -the golf course is rich in wildlife, including 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.  With 1 million species facing extinction globally, it’s vital to protect all remaining wildlife habitats.
2. It will help protect us from the effects of Climate Change – this area of greenspace is home to hundreds of mature oak trees and currently provides a green lung for the people of Maidenhead.  The soil as well as the trees absorb carbon.  The golf course land could play an even bigger role in carbon and rainfall capture, as well as cooling and filtering pollution, if it became a park for everyone, where the trees and soil were better managed, and more trees were planted.
3. It will boost our community’s health – research shows that access to greenspace is vital for both our physical and mental health and wellbeing.  The golf course is just a ten minute walk from Maidenhead town centre, so it’s perfectly placed to become a Great Park that most of us can walk or cycle to, rather than driving to other significant parks like Windsor Great Park and Cliveden.
4. It will boost our local economy – creating Maidenhead Great Park would bring economic prosperity to our town, creating a better place to live and work in, and to visit, with cleaner air and nature at its heart.  
5. Our town is growing – close to 6,000 new homes have already been built or granted planning permission in our town since 2013, many of them flats.  Our town is growing, yet our greenspace is shrinking with around one-third of Braywick Park’s greenspace lost to development in last four years.
6. Brownfield not greenfield – as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many offices and shops now lie empty and could be turned into housing.  As well as being better for the environment, brownfield sites can also be cheaper to develop as the services are already in place, providing an opportunity to create more affordable housing.