The future of Marlow Film Studios remains up in the air as a flood assessment has flagged that more monitoring needs to be done around water levels.

It comes as Buckinghamshire Council is yet to put forward a date to decide on the film studio's fate. 

A report carried out by the Local Flood Authority has recommended that the site, off the Westhorpe Interchange on the A404, be monitored for an extended period before a decision is made. 

The authority found that prior groundwater monitoring was insufficient because water levels were 'below normal' in 2022 due to dry spells. 

The council's Local Planning Authority is expected to make a decision to approve or reject Marlow Film Studios later this year but the applicant will also need to obtain consent to drain water from the site. 

Other information required by the flood authority before they make a conclusive judgement is the hydraulic modelling of a proposed bridge structure and details about drainage for the site's gravel road. 

The assessment comes as Disney filmmakers praised the Marlow set of Star Wars television series Andor at a Star Wars Celebration in London last Friday. 

The Diego Luna-fronted series was primarily shot at Pinewood Studios, with filming locations including a former quarry in Little Marlow. 

At an Andor panel on Friday, April 7, production designer Luke Hull said that shooting during the Covid-19 pandemic was made easier by the vast array of filming locations available in proximity to each other.

He said: "We were able to have thirty sets that organically grew and ultimately became one big composite set. They interact with each other and become places that don’t need to be explained but that you, as a watcher, just navigate with the characters. It becomes less about scale and more about scope."

Series creator Tony Gilroy also praised the "extraordinary talent pool" of the UK filmmaking industry.

The network of film studios, including Pinewood, Warner Brothers Studios in Leavesden and Shinfield Studios in Reading, has been dubbed the 'West London Cluster' due to their inter-accessibility and closeness to the capital.

Lead of the TV series, Diego Luna, reiterated this unique and interconnected filming environment.

He said: "Tony doesn't write before he knows how the set is going to be, so we had the editor and the composer working while the writing was going on. It's a different way of collaborating and such a different experience, especially being able to listen to the score as you step on set. It makes it easier to believe that this galaxy far, far away actually exists."