Relief as Taplow is spared from Government’s list of proposed new towns

Taplow’s ‘community’ will remain intact after the village was swerved in a Government shortlist for potential new towns, a parish councillor has said.

Cllr Roger Worthington, who has helped coordinate the fight against a proposed new town in Taplow, said there were ‘practical objections’ to the plan.

But he added the village ‘won’t be immune’ from future housebuilding, amid the government drive for development and a Buckinghamshire Council review of greenbelt land.

The Labour Government set up a New Towns Taskforce to identify locations for development in what it described as the ‘largest housebuilding programme since the Second World War’.

Taplow was considered a ‘promising location’ for a new town by the UK Day One think tank. It claimed there was ‘underused land with low biodiversity’ and good transport links.

A list of recommended sites has now been released by the taskforce, which includes Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire alongside 11 other locations in England.

The locations it has earmarked for housebuilding would contribute ‘at least 300,000 new homes in the coming years’, a report by taskforce chair Sir Michael Lyons said.

Cllr Worthington has been the chairman of a cross-parish council working group – spanning Burnham, Dorney and Taplow – which submitted an objection for the Taplow New Town proposal.

Asked what the most-pressing danger had been to Taplow should it have been chosen as a new town site, Cllr Worthington said: “It’s that very overworked, overused, word – community.”

“Taplow is a community,” he said.

“And even though we’ve had population growth, we’ve all been absorbed in it and it feels a very comfortable place to live – everybody’s friendly.

“There are some disparities of income across the parish, but I think the community is very harmonious.”

The parish council working group had warned that a New Town in Taplow risked being dissected by the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Railway line.

It would mean any development could be split into two neighbourhoods, the group said, with many homes built on greenbelt land and flood plains on either side of the road and railway.

“It would simply be a large housing estate connecting Burnham and Slough to Maidenhead,” Cllr Worthington said previously.

Speaking after the new town shortlist was released, Cllr Worthington said while there was ‘relief’ Taplow had been spared, there was still worry over future development.

“I think we won’t be immune from that,” Cllr Worthington said, citing Buckinghamshire Council’s Local Plan – which could affect greenbelt land in Taplow.

“Most of – maybe 90 per cent – of Taplow Parish is greenbelt [at the moment],” he added.

Buckinghamshire Council is consulting on a new Local Plan for the county, which includes a review of greenbelt-designated land.

The plan will be central to future planning decisions.

According to the council’s website, the Local Plan ‘shows where development can happen, and protected places where it needs to be carefully controlled’.

The consultation can be viewed online at tinyurl.com/mr83jwta and is open until October 29.