No justification for building on golf course

Quite unbelievably and for the umpteenth time, the anonymous ‘council spokesperson’ has trotted out in last week’s edition yet again the same statement: “While a tiny fraction of greenbelt development is needed in sustainable locations, the Borough Local Plan (BLP) still protects 82 per cent of the borough as greenbelt and just one per cent has been released for new homes and employment”.

Presumably the spokesperson believes that by constantly repeating this very disingenuous and misleading statement, the very naive and gullible residents of the borough will begin to believe it.

What the council is careful not to disclose is that the proposed development of the golf course alone will result in the loss of 48 per cent of Maidenhead’s green belt.

Furthermore, the 82 per cent figure is totally misleading and meaningless, since a large proportion of the borough’s greenbelt is Crown Estate land owned by the Royal family, which would never even be considered for development.

It should therefore not be included in the assessment of the borough’s greenbelt, and if this was done, the area of greenbelt released in the BLP for new homes and employment would be significantly more than one per cent.

The BLP includes the building of sufficient new homes to allow for a 40 per cent increase in the population of the borough, however, this has only increased by 10 per cent over the last 10 years.

At the same rate of increase it would therefore take another 40 years for the population to increase by 40 per cent – by 2053 and 40 years after the start of the

BLP. However, under the BLP, these new homes would all be completed by 2033, when there would only be sufficient population demand to occupy half of them.

It would take a further 20 years to fill all of the remaining new homes. This begs the question as to why are so many new homes being built now?

The council leader Andrew Johnson stated several weeks ago that Maidenhead now has enough new homes, but just take a look at the Landing and the site next to Waitrose to see how many are still being built!

Is there perhaps another explanation for all this? Is there a masterplan for Maidenhead to become a London overspill or dormitory town for commuters, similar to Ealing? Has some deal already been struck by our council with some London boroughs to house some of their residents?

Quite clearly, there is no justification or need to build 2,600 new homes on the golf course. The sole reason for the council’s desperation to proceed with this act of environmental vandalism is to get themselves out of their self-inflicted financial morass, a result of many years of total financial incompetence and mismanagement.

I am aware that much of the above has been said before, but repetition is sometimes necessary when confronted by obdurate refusal to acknowledge the truth.

In such circumstances we are morally obligated to continue to speak out.

John Hudson Rushington Avenue

Maidenhead