Iver Environment Centre will be forced to close if a recently approved M25 motorway service station is built, its manager has said.

Katy Barton told Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that she felt “sad and angry” that the Centre might shut down and accused Buckinghamshire Council of “decimating” the local Green Belt by selling off its land to build the services.

She said: “If the motorway services get built we are going to have to close. They are saying it won’t affect us. It will.

“We cannot teach out there with additional noise and it disproportionately affects our most vulnerable users.”

Iver Environment Centre, which opened in 1990, welcomes over 5,000 students a year to learn about ecology by pond dipping, minibeast hunts and other activities.

READ MORE: New M25 services at Iver Heath despite ‘harm to green belt’

The Centre also teaches a lot about where food comes from and is currently running school sessions called ‘Seed to Supermarket’ where children can grind wheat and shake cream to make butter, which they can eat as they look at the cows on nearby Mansfield Farm.

The warning about the Centre’s closure comes after the Council’s Strategic Sites Committee approved an outline application for a huge services with more than 1,000 parking spaces between Junctions 15 and 16 of the M25 near Iver Heath.

Katy said: “We were very disappointed by the outcome of the Strategic Sites meeting and a little confused about why this motorway service area was approved even though all the arguments and reasons for it being turned down before still exist.”

The approval of the plans for a new Welcome Break services, applied for by Colne Valley Service Area Limited, came after the Council quietly announced it intends to dispose of Round Coppice Estate and Mansfield Farm in a small newspaper notice and on its website.

The notice of the disposal does not mention the new services but HM Land Registry documents available on request do refer an agreement between the Council and Welcome Break Services Limited.

Katy claimed that Iver Environment Centre was being “punished” following the approval of the services by the Council, which advertises the Centre on its website among the ‘things to do’ in Buckinghamshire, despite potentially putting it at risk.

READ MORE: New M25 services: Village ‘betrayed’ by approval of green belt site

The vulnerable people, young people and people from deprived communities who use the Centre “are being pushed aside yet again as if their voices don’t matter”, Katy said.

The Centre manager also said that children and elderly people who use the Centre would be “disproportionally” affected by air pollution from cars using the services.

She added: “We have got an issue with toxic air. This is an issue that is life-limiting. It is a serious issue for children. They end up in A&E far more than they should do.

“We can’t morally bring children to a place where their life is going to be put in danger due to pollution, so that is why we would have to close.”

The proposed slip road for the services would be near the Centre’s sensory garden, which is used by students with additional needs.

Katy said: “This is really important because the noise pollution affects neurodiverse children differently. People with autism for example find it really hard to filter out background noise.”

The Centre manager also said that the rich local wildlife, including stag beetles, woodlice, worms, slugs, great crested newts, diving beetles and other creatures, is also likely to be affected by the new services.

The LDRS asked the Council about the impact of the new services on the Green Belt and whether application PL/20/4332/OA was given “special treatment” because the Council owns part of the land the site would be built on.

Councillor Alan Turner, Chair of the Council’s Strategic Sites Committee, said: “The committee voted to approve the Iver Heath location proposed by Colne Valley MSA.

“A final determination of the MSA application will not be made at this stage as the proposals exceed 1,000 square metres within the Green Belt.

“It will therefore be necessary to consult the Secretary of State who may wish to call in the proposals for his own determination.

“The process the committee follows in determining these and any other planning applications is clearly set out in nationally set planning law and due process has been followed at all times during this process.”

Any objection to the Council’s proposed disposal of Green Belt should be sent in writing the Secretary of State for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove by October 31. Full details are here.