Local artists join James Cameron in backing divisive major Marlow Film Studios project

Buckinghamshire Council rejected Dido Property Limited’s proposals for the filmmaking hub in May due to fears it would harm green belt land.

The company appealed and the Planning Inspectorate is now holding a public inquiry into the decision to refuse the plans, although the new Secretary of State, Angela Rayner, will have the final say on the site.

The inquiry will begin on January 21, 2025, while evidence must be submitted by the December 17 deadline.

Marlow Film Studios already has the backing of top directors like James Cameron and Sam Mendes, but this week, with the inquiry just a month away, letters of support from local artists have been sent to planning inspectors.

Among them is Claire Booth, an internationally acclaimed opera singer and musician, who said she was ‘delighted’ at the prospect of Buckinghamshire’s creative sector expanding.

She wrote: “The chance to have so much private investment injected into cultural provision should be encouraged not prohibited.”

Other creative voices lending their support for the studios include Marlow resident Dennis Munday, who praised the project for trying to create jobs and make an ‘appropriate use of a waste dump alongside the town bypass’.

He added: “It will provide additional bus connectivity with our neighbours in Maidenhead and High Wycombe.”

Meanwhile, semi-retired part-time supporting artist Jeremy Turner, who works in TV and film, said the studios would be ‘of huge benefit’ to the UK film industry locally and nationally.

He wrote: “I recently filmed on a prestigious new production by an Oscar winner in a temporary studio erected in a field, thus emphasising the shortage of purpose-built facilities.”

Plans for the studios include 18 sound stages to enable multiple film projects at once, ‘allowing for consistent production year-round’, as well as workshop and office space.

Dido says the studios provide much-needed cutting-edge filmmaking technology to boost UK film production and will create as many as 4,000 new jobs.

However, local politicians have pushed back against the project’s claimed benefits in recent weeks, arguing not all of Dido’s claims stack up.

The Conservative MP for Beaconsfield Joy Morrissey recently told inspectors demand for such facilities in the area was ‘weakening’.

She wrote: “Nearby Pinewood recently confirmed it would be closing its TV Studio department in 2025.”

The Labour MP for Wycombe Emma Reynolds also wrote to the Inspectorate, raising a number of concerns expressed by residents.

These include the loss of biodiversity and animal habitats, the impact the development would have on traffic nearby, increased parking on local residential roads and the suggestion of the plan generating over 4,000 new jobs not being realistic.

Others said the studios would be ‘inappropriate’ development on green belt land and would be ‘visible for miles around’ and that Dido had dismissed concerns of councillors and residents.

Mr Cameron said before councillors blocked the proposals last summer: "The next iteration of screen storytelling requires a purpose-built working space of exceptional quality, and trained professionals to grow the 3D market."

He is well-placed to comment on the potential of future storytelling having dedicated much of his late career to innovations on the Avatar movie series.