Westhorpe Park residents react to Marlow film studio plans

The film studio would be built next to the A404 on the land surrounding Westhorpe Park, a low-cost mobile home park, leaving residents feeling “trapped”.

Eileen Frances, 85, who has lived in the park for almost 34 years believes it would be “horrendous” if the plans went through.

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She said: “I have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren relying on this to leave some money to them but with that monstrosity appearing, it is never going to happen.

“I think it is very sad that they are taking up these green spaces with huge warehouses

“It is all down to money, they don’t care about people like me. It just gets to me that people think I am littler than them and under them, I’m not.

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“I have got a family that has made it in their lives and they just look down on you.

“I have seen more wildlife here than I have seen in my life.

“They have no thought for anybody else apart from themselves. They really don’t care.”

This comes as Marlow Studio Project releases a summary of their feedback from their public exhibitions.

Worries about traffic, wildlife, quality of life remain from local Westhorpe Park residents but there are also concerns over the images released by the studio project.

Jackie Waterman, 66, said: “They put all these beautiful pictures up of people walking and cycling around but in my experience film studios are closed studios.

“You can’t walk around them, they aren’t public at all.”

The latest image released by Marlow Studio Project

Martin Braint, 65, added: “I really don’t believe that the Marlow film company or Soundings is listing to anything that anyone is saying.

“I believe this will be a blight to everyone’s life in this area forever if this goes ahead. It will be terrible.”

Malcolm Shergold, 75, said: “In my opinion, these people only have pound signs in their eyes.

“They don’t give a jot about the wildlife and even less about us, the residents.”

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Verity West, 47, has urged the film studio to find a “brownfield site that is right for development in an area that has the infrastructure that can support it”.

She added: “When I first saw the master plan it felt like a thump to the chest.

“It was quite devastating and very upsetting the scale  of it and how it is going to surround us.”

Guy Carter, 62, said: “We are furious about this development.

“We have vulnerable people down here at Westhorpe Park, old people whose lives will be prematurely taken by this film studio because we will be annexed by all this development around here.”

Westhorpe Park residents are against the proposed plans

88-year-old Jennifer Gardner said: “I was aghast to see the size of it, the sheer enormous size and the amount of traffic that will be coming in every day.

“The road out there is already busy and with 2000 extra vehicles, it is going to add to the congestions.

“It will affect us tremendously, not only will it devalue our home but who wants to live having to drive through an industrial estate.”

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Corrine Nash, 59, admitted she would want to move from the area if the development went ahead.

She said: “It would turn my life upside down. I came here for the peace and quiet. “The disruption will be so huge. It is very distressing.

“I never imagined that somebody would even consider a film studio here.

“They portray it as this lovely place where people can walk through but there is going to be loads of security.

“What can I do? We don’t have that leverage to be able to stop it.

“I would want to leave but not everyone can do that. What are the options? They would just have to live with it.”

An image produced by Westhorpe Park residents on how they believe the studio will look

Tina Goodchild, 74, added: “It will look affect us no end.

“We came down here for peace and quiet. We just don’t want it.

“If they think we are all for it they are in cuckoo land.

“It would be the elderly people who would suffer the most, people would rather die than see that.

“We just dread it, we really do.”

Sue Stevens, 70, said: “  “I couldn’t believe the plans, we just thought they can’t.

“You have got to leave place for wildlife. You just have to look up in the sky to see the amount of birds we have.

“This is going to be going on 24/7 and they won’t be worried about the noise.”

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Ann Marie O’Grady, 66, said: “How could you think about doing it when there’s so much wildlife around here.

“We have owls, larks and woodpeckers and they would be gone. It’s all to do with money.”

The increase in traffic in the area is a major fear the Westhorpe Park residents have too.

Meg Benell, 74, said: “How are they going to cope with the traffic? It’s going to be a nightmare getting out.

“The view will be totally different. Our properties are going to be worth an awful lot less.

“I have been to a couple of consultations and they just evade our questions.

It’s really frightening.”

John Lamb, 79, said: “It is already a nightmare trying to get out here with the traffic in the morning.

“Imagine what it will be like. It will be horrendous.

“A lot of the people here are quite old so they don’t really have the fight in them.” The planning application is e

The film studio has said they have “intently” listened to feedback from local residents.

Robert Laycock, CEO of Marlow Studio Project, said: “The community engagement exhibitions which have been running since July last year have given residents and local people an opportunity to tell us what they think to the Marlow Film Studios proposal, and we have been listening intently to the feedback.

 “We will be aiming to answer as many of these questions as possible within the final planning application, which will be submitted to Buckinghamshire Council in the spring.”