Pinewood protesters take campaign to Downing Street (From Bucks Free Press)

Pinewood protesters take campaign to Downing Street

5:49pm Wednesday 12th August 2009 in News By Lawrence Dunhill

THE campaign to stop the Pinewood expansion has been taken to Downing Street, with over 600 people signing a petition.

Having passed the 500 mark, the petition will recieve a response from the Prime Minister when it closes for new signatures in November.

Meanwhile, protesters are set to demonstrate at the South Bucks Council building in September.

Ronnie Lamb, of Fulmer Parish Council, said: “I think this shows that local people are pretty appalled by what could happen.

“We want to get over a thousand people to protest at the council building next month and keep on building up our campaign.”

Nearly 300 letters of objection have been received by South Bucks District Council (SBDC), most of which support the petition's view that “the proposal would be a flagrant breach of all that the Green Belt stands for”.

The vast majority of these letters are from residents living in Fulmer, Iver and Hedgerley.

The council have received 117 letters in support of the application, with one sent in from film director Sir Ridley Scott.

He wrote: “The development would allow excellent training and re-training of youngsters and others who wish to follow a career in the film and television industry. This will prove very beneficial to the surrounding community.”

“Pinewood have proved their reliability on innumerable occasions over many years and are a vibrant and productive employer.”

Nearly all the letters in favour of the application are from members of the film and television industry or companies employed by Pinewood.

Andrew Smith, Group Director for Corporate Affairs at Pinewood, said: “I think you have to look at the quality of the responses.

“This is a very complicated application and I would urge people to look at it carefully. With modern technology now it's so easy to get names on a petition so it's not something that concerns us.”

Last month SBDC placed an area tree preservation order on the proposed site, protecting dozens of trees currently standing in the fields.

Vice Chairman of the Planning Committee, Anita Cranmer, said: “The order was not made to try and thwart the development in any way.

“This is a common procedure when planning applications are made and the decision was taken by the planning department.

“We have to view the application completely objectively at this stage.”

The Stop Pinewood demonstration will coincide with the planning committee meeting on September 23.