How we would benefit from ‘Great Park’

I was encouraged to read the comments made by Councillor Joshua Reynolds (Lib Dem, Furze Platt) in The Advertiser (November 4) concerning climate change.

He said the that the climate should be considered within ‘everything that we do’.

He also warned the council not to contradict themselves following COP26 by going through with developments on prominent green sites such as Maidenhead Golf Course.

This same sentiment was expressed by Boris Johnson at the recent Conservative Party conference.

RBWM councillors meet November 23 to discuss the corporate plan.

This could provide an opportunity to take decisions on our behalf that would significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the Royal Borough and provide enormous health and wellbeing benefits to all its residents.

In their deliberations the council should consider the following:

The preservation of Maidenhead Golf Course would provide the most significant antidote to carbon dioxide emissions in the Royal Borough. It is imperative that this large open and green space is retained. If 2,000 homes are built on the site it will have the opposite effect.

The Conservative-led council should remember that they represent the residents of our borough, 4,500 of whom signed a petition in support of turning the golf course into Maidenhead Great Park. This proposal was rejected by only one vote in the Council meeting which followed.

Clearly new homes are required in the Royal Borough and indeed thousands are being built in Maidenhead including more than 2,700 in the town centre.

Residents who will occupy these homes will need green space nearby where they can relax and enjoy open land and clean air with residents from all over the Royal Borough.

New York has Central Park, Maidenhead can have its own Great Park.

GEORGE MIDGLEY

Walker Road Maidenhead