New park will ‘damage’ bird populations as nature groups fear ‘off-lead dogs’

The creation of a new country park in Little Marlow will harm bird populations, nature groups have warned.

A conceptual plan to create the green space on land around Spade Oak Lake was approved in principle by cabinet members of Buckinghamshire Council during a meeting on Thursday afternoon.

The decision – which will need to be accompanied by planning permission – means cabinet members back plans to formally designate the council-owned land as a country park.

Plans also include laying new footpaths, installing way markers, information boards, litter bins, benches and building a new car park with 25 spaces.

The aim of the new country park is to protect Burnham Beeches, a ‘special area of conservation’, which is forecast to see greater numbers of visitors from the 432 new homes planned at nearby Hollands Farm.

This means the park will be what is known in planning as a ‘suitable alternative natural green space’ (SANG) – a piece of land designated for recreation, designed to attract residents of new developments away from protected and vulnerable sites.

However, environmental organisations fear that turning the land around the lake into a country park for this purpose will disturb wildlife, including the peninsula in the middle of the lake, which is informally recognised as a bird sanctuary.

Non-profit community group Wild Marlow said 186 bird species have been recorded at the site since 2014, stressing it contains ‘very important priority woodland, wetland and reedbed habitats’ and one is Buckinghamshire’s ‘most important’ sites for wildlife.

In a letter to the council on Monday, it said: “The draft proposals will cause significant damage to these populations with the introduction of all-access footpaths in close proximity to nesting/roosting sites, especially if off-lead dogs zones are permitted.”

Currently, signs around the lake ask dog walkers to keep their pets on leads during bird nesting season.

However, Natural England requirements for SANGs include that access should be ‘largely unrestricted within the site, with plenty of space for dogs to exercise freely and safely off the lead’.

The Buckinghamshire Bird Club also warned the creation of a country park around Spade Oak Lake would have ‘extremely negative impacts’ on wildlife in the area and warned it ‘must not be used as a convenient proxy for unwanted pressures on Burnham Beeches’.

In particular, the group warned a proposed footpath through the old gravel yard – a former Star Wars film set – near the sand spit of the lake would be ‘disastrous’, explaining there was already trespassing onto the spit, which would ‘undoubtably increase’ with a new footpath.

In a letter to the council on Monday, it said: “This spit area is one of the most important locations within Spade Oak Lake, attracting a huge range of birds throughout the year, especially during migration and winter.”

Other requirements of SANGs are that they are accessible on foot, are signposted, are created for a minimum of 80 years and have a minimum circular walk of 2.3-2.5 kilometres.

The ‘circular’ route chosen for the country park has been ‘squeezed in’ to the north of the lake and includes sections of reinstated and upgraded path.

A route around the lake itself was considered but abandoned after ‘very strong offensive odours’ of faeces were detected by ‘sniff tests’ during surveys of smells drifting across the path from the adjacent Little Marlow Sewage Treatment Works last year.

The works to create the country park, which has been known as ‘Little Marlow Lakes Country Park’ since the 1960s, are to be funded by the Hollands Farm developers.

However, the cabinet report for Thursday’s meeting states there is a ‘risk’ developers will not agree to pay a potential additional upfront cost for £4,000 per dwelling (£1.728m in total), which the council could charge to developers, as a ‘gateway’ cost for accessing council-owned land.

During the meeting, Councillor Stuart Wilson, asked for confirmation the council would pursue full recovery of all its own investment in purchasing and improving the site from developers via a ‘gateway payment’ in a ‘Section 106 agreement’.

He said this was crucial to make sure landowners, promoters and developers of Hollands Farm are not given a ‘free ride’ at the taxpayers’ expense.

The Independent also asked for any legal or financial agreement made with Dido Property Ltd for fields to the north of the Spade Oak land to be made public ahead of the public inquiry into the company’s refused plans to build Marlow Film Studios, which begins on January 21.

Councillor Peter Strachan, the cabinet member for planning and regeneration responded by telling the meeting there would be ‘further discussions’ with Hollands Farm developers about the costs, but said he was unable to confirm whether the council would recover the costs.

He added that millions of pounds worth of maintenance costs – the bulk of the total sum for the country park – would be covered by developers and said there was no legal agreement with Dido.