Agenda item

Members will learn about the work of the Buckinghamshire Film Office in its first year of operation.

Contributors:

Cllr Clive Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure

Sophie Payne, Service Director, Culture, Sport and Leisure

Ruth Bryant, Buckinghamshire Film Officer 

The Chairman welcomed Councillor Clive Harriss, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Sophie Payne, Service Director, Culture, Sport and Leisure and Ruth Bryant, Buckinghamshire Film Officer, to the meeting.

The Film Office offered a service for people wanting to film in locations across Buckinghamshire. The service was self-funding, meaning that the income ot the Council from filming fees covered the costs of the service.

The following points were noted during the Committee’s discussion:

·       A Member noted that most of Buckinghamshire’s filming locations were centred around infrastructure in the South of the county and asked whether the North would become more involved in the film business in the future. Cllr Harriss noted that the whole of the county had already been involved in terms of location filming. In terms of film studio sites, individual companies could choose their locations and the south of the county had proved popular in the past as it was to the West of London where there had traditionally been studios at Ealing and Park Royal and many skilled technicians who had commuted into London in the past lived nearby.

·       A Member asked about the target income set for the film office in the ensuing financial year. It was noted that a similar target had been set but the aim was to maximise opportunity and income for the Council.

·       In response to a Member’s question, it was explained that the film office had launched a website in December 2022 which included a facility for people to self-register locations for filming. So far, 120 applications had been received, and more were continuously encouraged. There was a wide variety of locations that would be of interest to productions, such as empty warehouse spaces, agricultural land and stately homes. The Film Office had been promoted at several Community Boards and they would be writing out to Town and Parish Councils to promote opportunities and the Code of Practice which had been developed to ensure that disruption from filming was minimal.

·       Some Members raised concerns about new film studio space planning applications in green belt areas.  Whilst it was acknowledged that filming in the county was exciting and brought with it job opportunities, there needed to be a balance in terms of protecting green space.  The Cabinet Member explained that the relevant Planning Committee would have to take a view according to planning policy; this was not a matter for the Film Office. In response to a Member’s concerns around frequent highway disruption as a result of filming, it was noted that film crews had to obtain permission to film on their desired roads and often alternative locations or very specific timeframes were offered to ensure disruption for local residents and traffic was minimised.

·       A Member questioned whether there was a chance that the filming ‘bubble’ could burst but the Cabinet Member confirmed that it was currently a growth area because of the increased demand for steaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.  Buckinghamshire was known as a centre of excellence in terms of the creative industries and this could only be a good thing for young people who wished to pursue a career in this area.

·       It was noted that film crews had a variety of roles behind the scenes, ranging from sound, filming, lighting and security to catering. There were also various colleges that offered film and media education, with many opportunities to work for production companies locally in Buckinghamshire. Pinewood had also recently run a ‘Futures Festival’, attracting 4000 young people with opportunities of working with high-profile companies such as Sony.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and Officers for their attendance and contribution to the meeting and hoped that the Film Office would continue to go from strength to strength.