Villagers to fight film studios over £200m expansion (From Bucks Free Press)
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Villagers in Iver Heath and Fulmer to fight film studios over £200m expansion
11:06am Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News By Lawrence Dunhill
Protesters before a South Bucks District Council meeting in 2009.
VILLAGERS are set to relaunch their campaign against a £200 million expansion of Pinewood film studios.
Campaigners have already seen off one major planning application from Pinewood, but now face another lengthy battle to save an area of Green Belt land in Iver Heath.
Last week Pinewood Shepperton plc submitted plans to massively increase the size of its site to include new stages, workshops, production offices and streetscapes for filming.
A previous plan which included 1,400 residential properties was refused by South Bucks District Council in 2009, with the refusal later upheld by the government.
Iver Heath resident Sylvie Lowe, who is chairman of the Stop Project Pinewood campaign group, said: “They’ve removed the houses from the plan but it’s basically much the same. What we’re actually against is the development on the Green Belt.
“We don’t want to hand over to our children and grandchildren something that’s concreted over.”
Pinewood, which is regularly used for major blockbusters such as the James Bond and Harry Potter films, says the expansion would create 3,100 new jobs and ‘support’ 8,100 jobs.
But Fulmer parish councillor Susie Simkins, of Cherry Tree Lane, said these figures would ‘ring alarm bells’ for villagers who are concerned about traffic issues.
She added: “It’s Green Belt and they can’t put a spade in the ground. It will be fought by us and that’s the bottom line.”
Fellow councillor Ronnie Lamb, of Stoke Common Road, worries that Fulmer will be “dwarfed” by the development.
Pinewood says the plan will help it continue to compete on a global scale, while celebrated film directors Ridley Scott and Danny Boyle have already voiced their support for the expansion.
Judging on recent form, South Bucks District Council is likely to reject the application, which could then be appealed by Pinewood bosses.
An appeal would likely leave the ultimate decision with the Secretary of State of State for Communities and Local Government - currently Conservative Eric Pickles.
Comments(8)
MCarey
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2:07pm Wed 6 Feb 13
BOOKERite
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3:41pm Wed 6 Feb 13
MCarey wrote:My sentiments entirely. By all means extend Pinewood's ability, and I agree it is a success story, but let them move to a sight which is not green belt. There is plenty of useable land around that is already spoilt. PLEASE PROTECT GREEN BELT LAND FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN.
keep fighting villagers! If Pinewood want to extend then do so but not on Greenbelt Land it should be that simple but for some reason these applications keep turning up.
chris740
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11:14pm Wed 6 Feb 13
jayeatman
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8:49am Thu 7 Feb 13
jayeatman
says...
8:50am Thu 7 Feb 13
jayeatman wrote:when they grow up that is!
Yes BOOKERite perhaps you should ask your children if they'd like a place to live and a job.
s6blr
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4:16pm Thu 7 Feb 13
jayeatman wrote:And the NIMBY's in Ivor can then complain when their house values don't increase, no one wants to live there, no one is buying their houses, they have to commute for 30mins -> 2H to work.
So here we have yet another example of a great British success story being strangled by red tape and NIMBY attitudes. No wonder it is proving so hard to drag this country out of recession.
Idiots!
ShamTV
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3:35pm Mon 11 Feb 13
The joint initiative will look to address some of the priorities outlined in the Next Gen report that was led by Eidos president Ian Livingstone, Double Negative managing director Alex Hope and innovation foundation Nesta.
Courses at the proposed centre of excellence will focus on visual effects, including 2D and 3D, FX, animation and rigging, pipeline and compositing.
It will also develop programmes for the video games sector and support services such as data warehousing and wrangling, as well as areas that do not require a computer science foundation, such as studio management, sound engineering and production.
In 2006, Pinewood was granted outline planning permission for up to one million sq ft of new facilities by redeveloping the existing studios, some of which has been implemented in the form of new sound stages.
Pinewood is about to submit another plan for further expansion of the studios and development of the centre of excellence will depend on planning permission being granted.
Pinewood Studios director of strategy and communication Andrew Smith said: “We are thrilled to be announcing these plans today to develop a centre of excellence for the screen based industries here at Pinewood.
“We hope it will help to provide the next generation of talent with the skills they need to turn their ideas into commercial success.
“By basing the centre at Pinewood it will allow students to work with and learn from industry colleagues who are at the top of their game, working on award winning and international productions on a daily basis.
“We are especially pleased that this announcement comes as the government introduces its new system of tax relief for high end TV, animation and video games.”
Most of the students on-site are likely to be apprentices, with the majority of students 16-24 years old.
Pinewood said it would be open to considering “innovative delivery models”, such as Apprenticeship Training Agencies, so that students can be made available for project work to the 200 firms based at Pinewood for on-the-job training.
jayeatman says...
1:14pm Wed 6 Feb 13