A beauty spot’s conversion into a country park will be "good for the village and the district", the chairman of a community group has said.

Little Marlow Lakes Country Park will officially become a country park under the 1968 Countryside Act, after Wycombe District Councillors gave the go-ahead to formalise its status at a cabinet meeting on Monday.

It comes after bosses said that work on the Local Plan and Natural England identified that Burnham Beeches – a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a National Nature Reserve and a Special Area of Conservation – was “subject to increasing levels of visitor pressure”.

As a result, the council wanted to increase accessibility to Little Marlow Lakes Country Park to “off-set impacts” on Burnham Beeches.

Mike Overall, chairman of the Little Marlow Lakes Country Park Community Partnership, said the decision would prove to be a “good thing not just for Little Marlow but also for the district”.

He said: “It will help protect the big stretch of Green Belt between Marlow and Bourne End.

“The development of the country park is about giving people access to the countryside while protecting it.

“It is extensively used by walkers, joggers, anglers etc. – there are a host of activities going on.

“It is all good news really. We now have to make sure that it is developed properly.”

The 1968 Countryside Act provided power for local councils to provide country parks. The land does not need to be in their ownership and providing for a park does not incur any financial or other obligations upon a council.

It does, however, require a “clear resolution, beyond the designation of a site in a Local Plan”.

WDC’s cabinet is expected to delegate the delivery of the country park to the head of community service in consultation with the cabinet member for community services.

The proposal for the area to become a country park was first made over a decade ago.