New M25 services approved despite ‘harm to green belt’

Plans for a new motorway service area on the M25 at Iver Heath have been approved, despite dozens of objections and the “significant harm” it would cause to the green belt.

The proposed services at Iver Heath between junctions 15 and 16 has been recommended for planning permission by Buckinghamshire Council’s Conservative-majority Strategic Sites Committee, which voted in favour of the proposal by a majority of eight to three.

The site, applied for by Colne Valley Motorway Service Area Ltd, will include 991 car parking spaces, 51 of which are disabled, 100 for electric vehicles and 50 for staff.

In addition, there will be 150 HGV parking spaces, 30 for coaches, 30 for caravans and 28 for motorcycles.

The plans, first submitted in 2020, also include a 4,500sqm amenity/facility building with a food hall and toilets, as well as a petrol station, drive-thru coffee shop, dog walking area, children’s play area, picnic zone and terrace, and HGV amenity space.

Construction will mean creating new slip roads, diverting the existing bridleway and footpath, and combining the Slough Road with a motorway overbridge.

There were 126 official objections to the proposed Iver Heath services from residents, political figures and others.

These related to harm to the green belt, impact on the character of the area, loss of views, light pollution, impact on neighbours and wildlife, the loss of countryside, traffic impacts, highway safety, flooding concerns and other issues.

A report presented to the Committee reads: “The proposed development would result in significant spatial harm and moderate visual harm to the green belt and would conflict with three out of the five purposes of including land within the green belt.”

One objector, Mr Geoff Bennett, wrote: “The Strategic Sites Committee are all base in the north of Bucks and are prepared to dump anything onto Iver, as long as it doesn’t happen in their village. They should be ashamed of themselves. This is green belt, time to stop selling it.”

Ms Katy Barton Address of the Iver Nature Study Centre, also wrote: “We are seriously concerned by the ecological damage that the development will have on this area through habitat destruction, watercourse culverting, light pollution, air pollution and noise pollution.”

However, Natural England said it does not object to the new services as it “considers that the proposed development will not have significant adverse impacts on statutory designated sites”.

A report by Argus Ecology also found that there will be a 10 percent net gain in biodiversity due to the retention of habitats and the installation of new ones such as tree planting.

Despite a huge number of objections, the Committee gave the new services the green light after wading through over 900 pages of planning documents.

During the mammoth five-hour meeting, a related proposal for mineral extraction and provision of road access for the Iver services was also approved by 10 to one.

Another separate proposal for a new services between junctions 16 and 17 of the M25, near Chalfont St Peter, put forward by Extra MSA Group, was refused by a majority of nine councillors, with two abstentions.