Tonight:
5°c
Small-scale production to placate Pinewood locals
Simon Kirby19 Sep 2008
Plans to build more than 2,000 homes on green-belt land as part of a revamp of Pinewood Studios have been scaled back - but local opposition remains fierce.
The proposed £200 million expansion of the studios where the James Bond movies are filmed now includes 1,500 homes, down from 2,250 in the original plans.
The revised proposals involve building over a third on the open green belt around the Buckinghamshire studios rather than all of the 44-hectare site. Project Pinewood would also create new television and film production facilities and 16 permanent working film sets replicating locations across America, Europe and the UK. A French-style square is one of the proposals, but plans for a lake have now been dropped.
Andrew Smith, the studio's director of corporate affairs, said the changes had been made following opposition from local residents. He said: "We have listened to representations from the community and we are now proposing to use about 32 per cent of the land, instead of 100 per cent. We've always had a good relationship with the community and we want to maintain that. Pinewood is looking to be the creative hub of the UK, if not Europe. "
But local residents are far from won over by the new proposals, which have gone on show at Pinewood Studios until Sunday. Joyce Brown, who has lived close to the studios in Iver Heath for 50 years, said: "We are all furious that Iver Heath is going to be turned into... I can't think of a word nasty enough to describe it."
