THE long-standing promise of creating a park in the Little Marlow lakes area remains a priority, Buckinghamshire Council has pledged.

Plans to create a country park on land between Globe Park and the A404 at Marlow and Bourne End were first floated in the 1960s and became known as Little Marlow Lakes Country Park.

Decades on, the proposed park has its own website, Facebook page, and a five-star average rating on Tripadvisor.

However, the much-hyped green space does not formally exist, and the council is not sure if it ever will.

A spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the local authority’s position had not shifted from its decision in 2022 to create a park on land at Spade Oak Lake, the flooded former gravel pit.

They said: “The council remains committed to pursuing the creation of a cost-neutral scheme on the land in its ownership.”

READ MORE: Huge Bucks manor to get 4m-high extension as planning approved

In 2022, the council scaled back the size of its plans for the park – inherited from the former Wycombe District Council – to just a sixth of their original size.

Bucks Council claimed this was because it only owned the land at Spade Oak Lake by the railway line north of the River Thames.

At just 55 hectares, this parcel of land makes up just over 16 per cent of the overall site, with the rest of the 329 hectares being in private hands.

The council argued it would be difficult to pursue the creation of a new park on such large swathes of private land under multiple ownerships.

At the same time, the authority also agreed not to pursue formal country park designation for whatever green space ended up being created.

This week, the council said the park it intends to create at Spade Oak Lake would meet the necessary standards to be classed as a ‘suitable alternative natural greenspace’ – or SANG.

In planning, SANGs are designed to absorb the impact of population growth caused by new housing developments.

It is hoped that by attracting visitors to these alternative green spaces, footfall will be limited in other nearby protected green spaces, which may have vulnerable species.

Little Marlow Lakes Country Park is proposed as a SANG that could mitigate the impact on Burnham Beeches, a special area of conservation with ancient, pollarded trees that support a rich array of mosses, lichens, insects and other invertebrates.

It is thought that Burnham Beeches could suffer due to planned nearby housing developments such as Hollands Farm and Slate Meadow, which are set to accommodate hundreds of families between them.

The council said it is in ‘ongoing’ negotiations with Natural England to see if the SANG meets the necessary requirements.

The update comes as Natural England recently registered its objection to the Hollands Farm development due to the ‘uncertainty’ over whether Little Marlow Lakes Country Park will be created.

The public body said the park ‘cannot be relied upon as suitable mitigation to avoid adverse effects upon’ Burnham Beeches.

Natural England said the that allocating the land at Spade Oak Lake as a SANG had ‘potential to provide mitigation’ for Hollands Farm, but that this had not been agreed.