Developers are convinced that the proposed Marlow Film Studios will transform 'sustainable travel' in the town, but others are not so sure.

At a Marlow Town Council meeting last week, councillors agreed to reintroduce the town's bus service into the yearly budget despite concerns that the public transport fixture was not environmentally viable.

While the council are considering actions including a merge of transport links with Marlow Bottom and Bourne End, the developers behind Marlow Film Studios believe that the additional travel measures laid out in their planning proposal could help to provide a sustainable alternative to Marlow's bus service. 

 Council Leader Chris Funnell said: "In an ideal world, we would have a little shuttle bus running around town that would be able to pick up passengers and be used by youngsters on the school run. But we've got a very old bus chugging around that is sometimes used and sometimes not."

Other councillors described the bus as "diesel belching" but acknowledged that it served a vital community need, with disadvantaged residents and children reliant on it for travel in and around the area.

Robert Laycock, CEO of Marlow Film Studios said: "Travelling further than you can walk around Marlow can be hard, which is why we have listened to the community and are proposing two new bus routes and why we have sustainable transport proposals at the very heart of the Film Studios proposal.

"An interlinking hopper service around Marlow and Marlow Bottom, extending to the wider community including Little Marlow and Bourne End, together with planned investment, particularly around making the 50-year-old A404 Westhorpe Roundabout fit for future traffic flows would represent a remarkable local and sustainable transport investment."

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However, Richard Parker, the co-chair of The Marlow Society, a registered charity dedicated to preserving and monitoring developments in the town, presented a very different perspective in a comment he submitted to the application's planning portal on behalf of the group earlier this month.

He wrote: "Two bus services have been promised, between Maidenhead Station, the Film Studios and Wycombe Station, and between Marlow, the Film Studios and Bourne End. There is no mention, however, of how these will be funded and who will operate them. They will also only be for the use of Film Studios staff at peak times.

"The nearest train station to Marlow is 1.5 miles away and infrastructure restrictions limit the service to once an hour. The nearest bus stop is 0.67 miles away and has a service every 30 minutes. The idea of additional buses is a fantasy."

He added that if the public transport proposals did fall through, the only practical way to access the studios site would be by car, dramatically increasing congestion on the Westhorpe Junction of the A404 and A4155 and contributing to the town's already poor air quality. 

Click here to view the Marlow Film Studios planning application.