Beaconsfield MP Joy Morrissey slams Pinewood Studios expansion

The film studios located in Iver, Buckinghamshire, has been given the go-ahead to build 21 new sound stages, backlot filming space, a multi-storey car park, an education and training hub and a publicly accessible nature reserve.

Buckinghamshire Council's planning committee approved the plans for the 1.4m sq ft expansion to the south of the existing Pinewood Studios site in Iver Heath.

Beaconsfield MP Joy Morrissey spoke in defence of residents from Iver Heath, Iver and Fulmer.

MP speaking with the team of local councillors who spoke against the application. (Image: Office of Joy Morrissey MP)

She said at the meeting on Thursday (February 16): "Pinewood has been expanded and every time there are promises made and deliberately broken. Once again you have an application with projects like the five points roundabout and seven hills road mitigated, invariably the trigger point is set and Pinewood has a choice to choose whether this happens but this has a high cost for residents.

"In light of this they cease to provide any mitigation loss for the greenbelt and the grinding impact on residents. I echo the Colne Valley Regional Park concerns about the environmental destruction this will cause. It will exasperate the rat run problem and with the expected 8,000 workers on site this will cause environmental and social destruction to my residents so this warrants from me an objection."

Objections were made about residents feeling unsafe due to the increased traffic on ‘cut-through roads’ that lack pedestrian pavements.

Mrs Morrissey has led calls for more sustainable and realistic plans from Pinewood since her election in 2019, founding the Iver Action Group to bring together local residents, associations and councillors.

Mrs Morrissey called for the committee to deploy greater scrutiny of the process of drawing up the Section 106 agreement with Pinewood, which is the legal agreement for Pinewood to deliver mitigation works.

She claimed during the meeting that the oversight of these documents has been so poor historically that Pinewood have managed to put the same mitigation measures in every planning application for a decade and never even begun to work on them.

The application was passed but several additional conditions were imposed and the committee stated its commitment to reviewing the implementation of mitigation measures.

Mrs Morrissey said: “While I am disappointed that this inappropriate development has been approved, I am pleased that the committee has listened to the issues I raised about lack of delivery for local people.

"For far too long Pinewood has been able to use its vast resources to throw money at planning consultants and legal advisers until they got their way, at the expense of residents. If this project is to go ahead Pinewood must finally deliver on their promises, which they have failed to keep for a decade and more."

Chair of Pinewood Paul Golding replied to Mrs Morrissey on the accusation 106 agreements were not being delivered.

He said: "The seeming accusation that we have not fulfilled previous 106 agreements is wrong. There has been a delay in the five points roundabout but that has been agreed upon with the relevant authorities and that will happen that delivery before any space is occupied at Pinewood south. 

"In terms of Seven Hills Road, we are proposing to give up a certain amount of space that has already been consented as part of this application therefore it would seem reasonable to deliver that space without having to be required to do Seven Hills Road.

"We are ready to do that as soon as we hit the required trigger, my own personal view is that it would require the entire development to be committed to before we can go ahead with the scheme because it will be economically unviable.”