'Angela Rayner is plotting to dump a £750m film studio on our greenbelt'

An enquiry into the movie workplace task kicked disconnected this week (Image: Marlow Film Studios)

Residents of a beauteous Buckinghamshire municipality are furious arsenic Angela Rayner looks acceptable to o.k. a monolithic Hollywood-style movie workplace connected greenbelt land.

Locals successful Marlow deliberation Housing Minister Angela Rayner would beryllium amended disconnected not getting progressive successful a lucrative but perchance destructive improvement planned for their backyard.

The Deputy Prime Minister volition marque a determination connected the aboriginal of a £750 cardinal Hollywood-backed accumulation analyzable aft a nationalist enquiry concludes adjacent month.

While astatine archetypal glance, the James Cameron-endorsed mega-development looks similar conscionable the economical boon that had Rachel Reeves scrambling to China successful hunt of earlier this month, a clear-eyed look astatine the details of the lawsuit reveals a murkier picture.

“Contrary to the spot developers’ claims, the country isn’t derelict grey loop land,” section campaigner Sam Kershaw, co-chair of the Save Marlow’s Greenbelt radical said.

He said: “It is portion of a state parkland which is affluent successful biodiversity and a valued assets for section radical that contributes to their carnal and intelligence health.”

“A immense workplace and the thousands of associated commuter cars would origin biology damage, postulation chaos and societal disruption,” helium added.

Mr Kershaw besides said that a parish canvass revealed the “huge unpopularity” of the project, with implicit 85% of voters saying they didn’t privation it to spell ahead.

The movie workplace sits astir 1.5 miles extracurricular Marlow (Image: Getty)

The movie studio, which would sprawl crossed a 90-acre agelong of onshore connected the outskirts of an affluent riverside town routinely ranked among the champion places successful the UK to enactment down roots, was thrown retired by Buckinghamshire Council past May.

Despite fears that the projected improvement would represent inappropriate usage of greenish loop onshore and person repercussions for the section roadworthy network, Angela Rayner ‘called in’ the plans successful October, enticed by the developers’ committedness of implicit 4,000 caller jobs and a £3.5bn concern successful the section area.

The Deputy-PM has spoken astir her tendency to unblock the readying strategy and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced caller taxation breaks for UK filmmakers successful the autumn - fuelling speculation that the task volition beryllium an casual yes for the caller government.

The enquiry has been framed arsenic a trial of the government’s committedness to boosting the country’s planetary illustration arsenic a basal for filmmaking, with Sasha White KC insisting that the task would beryllium “a gamechanger for the economical wellness of the county…and frankly, the nation”.

But it could besides beryllium grounds of a enactment retired of measurement with the section consensus, particularly successful agrarian areas wherever if not movie studios, immense swathes of caller lodging developments tin airs an existential threat.

“The tract is designated arsenic portion of the greenish belt,” White said connected the opening time of the inquiry. “However [we] volition reason that the tract is onshore recently conceived by the Labour authorities arsenic ‘grey belt’.”

The authorities confirmed successful December that councils would beryllium ordered to redesignate nether 10% of greenish loop onshore arsenic ‘grey’ successful a bid to conscionable caller lodging targets - with a caller readying model prioritising “infrastructure for section communities” connected the protected land, including schools, surgeries and affordable homes.

Affordable homes successful Marlow see Westhorpe Park, a caravan tract bordering the projected improvement tract which is “a refuge” for those incapable to enarthrosis the mean location prices of £735,116 successful the municipality centre, according to 77-year-old Melvin Shergold.

Alongside his 56 neighbours, helium would beryllium “surrounded by 70-foot-tall sheds” if the plans went ahead, Mr Shergold told The Telegraph past year.

Angela Rayner overruled a assembly rejection of the plans successful October (Image: Getty)

And portion its developers - including Robert Laycock, the great-nephew of James Bond writer Ian Fleming - extol the maturation of the UK movie industry, with ever-increasing request for much workplace space, naysayers including Mr Kershaw person thrown uncertainty connected the question.

Suggesting that determination are “over ten” different movie studios wrong a 30-minute thrust of Marlow, the campaigner said: “The immense roar successful UK workplace operation implicit the past 5 years was driven by a bubble successful request from streamers similar Netflix and Amazon. The streaming bubble burst…when the absorption moved from maturation to profitability.

“By expanding the oversupply of studios successful the southbound east, Marlow Film Studios isn’t going to make further jobs oregon economical growth, it volition simply instrumentality movie productions and jobs from existing studios. It’s a zero-sum game.”

Marlow Film Studios and the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government has been approached for comment.