2009
10.19
10.19
Once again Lawrence Dunhill and The BucksfreePress have scooped the pack in telling the world that Council officers say ‘Project Pinewood’ should be refused in South Bucks.
THE Pinewood Studios expansion plan looks likely to be rejected on Wednesday after council officers recommended it be refused.
Planning officers said the development would be innappropriate and harmful to the Metropolitan Green Belt – representing a “prominent physical and visual intrusion”.
The proposed site lies within the Colne Valley Park – in which proposals will only be permitted if they “maintain and enhance the landscape in terms of its character, its scenic and conservation value and its overal amenity”.
Officers also said the development could make further “innapropriate” development more likely.
Concerns over the increase in traffic and protection of trees and hedgerows currently on the site were also noted.
The full report is here:
Happily for The British Film Industry and for Pinewood Shepperton PLC the West Midlands is waiting in the wings to rescue this expansion plan. The vision of SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY continues to be a minimum of 15 acre site with sound stage in every county in The UK, ideally each one called Pinewood Studios. The vision is to protect the jobs and employment in Iver Heath and the finances of Pinewood Shepperton PLC.
Frankly the 100 acre expansion on the greenbelt land was far too timid, far too achromatic to really blow the world competition away. The West Midlands is ready and willing to home the first stage of a massive, decisive expansion of Pinewood Studios around The UK until this is the automatic choice of film-makers on all budgets in every language.
We can have The Pyramids, North Pole, Moscow, Mumbai, Beijing here as well as much, much better versions of Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Rome, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans etc than were originally planned.
Space is not a factor. The area from Coventry to Stoke can provide over 5000 acres of suitable space.
The doors stay wide open for Pinewood Shepperton PLC to realise that this is the viable expansion plan rather than considering China and Malaysia (cheap land, cheap labour).
Jonathan Stuart-Brown
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