Meeting documents

To include an update on the following:-

1. Road infrastructure (Pinewood transport consultants and Bucks County Council will be attending for this item)
2. Maintenance of ditches and data from the water storage monitoring

3.     HGV’s being stored onsite

4.     Environmental report (landscape habitat, flora and fauna)

Matthew Wright and Kathryn Maidment from Pinewood Studios provided the following updates:

1.       Pinewood Studios Development Phase 2 update

Phase 2 was nearing completion with the majority of roads and landscaping works having been completed. It was anticipated that this development phase would be completed by the end of October 2019. Sir Robert McAlpine staff had started to leave the site with work on the backlot also nearing completion. The footway and cycle path had been completed, with only some snagging issues to be rectified. The new development would begin to be occupied between now and mid-November 2019 when the development would be fully operational. In relation to traffic it was expected that this would increase during peak times once the development became operational. Initially the timetable of productions means that there would not be two productions running side by side although there would be a time when traffic movements would increase and it was hoped that with the road improvements being made there would be a consistent flow of traffic. There was one large new car park with 725 places, with a further three peripheral car parks meaning that there were just under 1,000 spaces alongside the 1,500 spaces either side of the road and it was expected that these would be fully occupied.

2.       Seven Hills Road

Discussions were ongoing with Buckinghamshire County Council and South Bucks District Council and there had been positive engagement with both. Work on the detailed road design was ongoing and this would be shared in the next four to six weeks. The plan was for the planning application to be submitted to South Bucks District Council before the end of 2019 with public consultation taking place before the application was submitted. It was planned that residents within the immediate vicinity would be contacted first with one to one and group meetings planned to ensure that those residents’ concerns were addressed in the plans. In relation to the previously planned consultation being cancelled at short notice it was confirmed that whilst it had been anticipated that the designs would have been at a stage to be shared they had not developed to the point of going out to consultation at that time. Therefore the decision was made to re-schedule the consultation. Further, it was confirmed that there was not specific width for a footway on Seven Hills Road and that there were no imminent plans to implement a permissive footpath on Pinewood land.

The planning application would be supported by a transport assessment followed by a detailed section 278 highway design, and a tender procurement exercise. Taking into account the time of construction it was estimated that the project would take 18 to 24 months to complete from the point planning permission was granted. Current transport usage/trends was in the process of being assessed.

An update was also provided on other planning applications to develop various stages across Pinewood West, with much of the existing buildings being demolished to create space to develop on. At the North Dock there was permission to demolish the powerhouse and office building to build a further stage and in relation to plot 104 of PSDF a further stage was planned which would result in a 25k square foot decrease to the footprint of buildings currently on site, largely due to the demolishment of existing office buildings. External consultation was not proposed for these as they were fairly hidden on site.

It was confirmed that there were no plans to build the multi storey car park which was initially part of PSDF as the existing offer was expected to be adequate.

3.       Maintenance of ditches and general site maintenance

All grass cuttings had been completed for the year whilst tree lopping was planned for Pinewood Green residents following approval from the Council’s Tree Officer. Rainfall data would be presented at a future meeting after there had been a winter’s rainfall to report on.

4.       HGV’s being stored on site

There were 43 HGV’s registered on site. Tenants on site were responsible for the monitoring of these HGV’s which were ancillary to their businesses and Pinewood had no plans to limit the number of HGVs a company may wish to register on site. Pinewood is an industrial site with a lot of vehicle movements with not all HGVs being parked on site. All businesses who were tenants on site were part of the film industry and Pinewood had no plans to attract tenants who were not part of this industry.

It was said that whilst there was a sign at one end of Pinewood Green to restrict HGV access, the sign at the other end was not clearly visible and there had been collisions due to large vehicles turning. The Local Area Technician would visit the site along with the local County Councillor to ensure adequate sign provision was in place.

5.       Environmental update

The annual ecology report had been submitted to the County Council and Pinewood had paid the annual ecology contribution. The County Ecologist would review the report and subsequently meet with Pinewood’s ecologist. A brief update paper would be provided at the next meeting.

6.           Current events

The new cycle path would be opened on Friday 25 October 2019 at 9.30 a.m. and members of the local community were invited to attend. An event had also been arranged for 7 November 2019 at 6 p.m. to discuss Pinewood’s historical connection to the armed forces in honour of Remembrance Day. A veteran would be present as well as a representative from the Imperial War Museum; residents were welcome to attend although would need to RSVP. A service would be held on Remembrance Day itself with refreshments from 9.30 a.m. and the service commencing at 10.40 a.m.