Lorraine Kelly urged to help stop ‘cowboy’ builders

A resident  in the village of Bourne End near High Wycombe has written to her fellow nearby neighbour asking her to raise awareness of a controversial outline planning application.

Lorraine Kelly is understood to live in a large Arts and Crafts-style former boathouse in Bourne End on the banks of the River Thames.

The ITV star has been urged to use her fame to help stop a proposed housing development on a nearby woodland in Fieldhead Gardens, where trees were cut down earlier this year.

READ MORE: Lorraine Kelly given permission to extend £2m cottage after tree row with neighbours

Following this, MMDM Developments Limited submitted proposals to build three detached Dormer bungalows on the site to Buckinghamshire Council in October

However, a stream of local residents have filed objections to the application – reference 23/07458/OUT – ahead of the deadline to object on Monday, November 6.

One anonymous neighbour, who wrote to Lorraine Kelly about the site, claims the felling of trees there triggered her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

She told the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I could not sleep. That emotion comes straight out because of the trauma and PTSD. I have not been able to sleep more than 90 minutes.

“Yesterday, someone was using a chainsaw, I thought I had got over it, but my heart started banging again. This is seven months later.”

The loss of trees at the woodland is one of residents’ main arguments for refusing the application, despite permission already having been granted to fell ash saplings, sycamores, horse chestnuts and other trees.

MMDM also claimed in its design and access statement that its proposal “would not harm the character and appearance of the area and would not erode its woodland character”.

In her letter to Lorraine Kelly, the anonymous resident claimed that MMDM’s contractors had carried out a “full-blown chainsaw massacre” at the site between January and April 2023.

READ MORE: Heartbreak over 'destroyed' woodland in Bourne End

She said this resulted in the “devastating annihilation of virtually every tree within this formerly beautiful woodland, leaving it a war zone-like wasteland.”

She told the LDRS: “They just wanted the opportunity to fire up a chainsaw and wreak havoc. They were cowboys.”

She added: “It was as if a bomb went off, the whole house shook. They Were cutting down massive trees. You are supposed to be cutting them in bits. They put chains around the trees and were dragging them around.”

MMDM has been approached for comment. The developer lists its address as at Desborough Park Road in High Wycombe.

However, staff at another company at the address listed on the MMDM website claim that MMDM does not use the address.

The website says that MMDM Investments Limited is a “property management and administration specialist business” that provides services in London, Dubai and Dublin.

The anonymous resident said she thinks that the company wants to build flats on the site and has felled trees to encourage the council to back its application.

She said: “If you work in Dubai where there is money to be made very easily, why are you working on a tin pot woodland in Bourne End? They are chancers.

“It is not just the fact that they are applying to build three wooden bungalows on there, that are totally incongruous with the environment. I think they want to build flats.”

Lorraine Kelly has been approached for comment.

Comments on the application can be submitted on the council’s planning portal here.