Getting out of Maidenhead Golf Course plans 'all but impossible', says RBWM

Windsor and Maidenhead council has said it is ‘all but impossible’ to pull out of Maidenhead Golf Course plans – despite a 2,000-signature petition calling for it.

Tina Quadrino of Maidenhead Great Park campaign group brought the petition to full council on Wednesday, asking the council to ‘protect our public open space and biodiverse woodlands by ending plans to build on Maidenhead Golf Course’.

It was clear from the officer response that the council considers this financially unwise.

Cabinet member for planning, governance and asset management, Cllr Bermange proposed that the council ‘condemns the decision’ of the previous administration for ‘binding’ the council with a ‘potentially punitive contract at great risk to the public purse.’

In addition to about £120million in capital receipts lost to the council from pulling out, the Royal Borough would likely also have had to pay ‘significant financial compensation’ to developer CALA Homes.

“Despite a genuine effort to investigate options to terminate the plan entirely, the actions of the previous administration have rendered this all but impossible, due to the financial, planning and legal impacts that would result,” Cllr Bermange’s motion read.

He proposed the council ameliorate the impact on biodiversity by establishing a community-led woodland and open space management plan.

This is a regretted and unwanted outcome for the administration, its members said.

Cllr Bermange said the council had looked at whether the golf course is legally public open space, but expert advice led to the conclusion that there is no legal avenue here.

“I spent countless hours trying to find a way of exiting this contract without causing financial ruin to the council,” said Cllr Bermange.

He said he found out that the contract originally included details that would have allowed the Royal Borough to withdraw from the agreement without penalties after August 2023, if the golf club lease was not surrendered.

But in November 2022 – six months before the local elections – the former administration agreed to a variation of the contract that pushed this date back.

“It really does feel to me to be an affront to the democratic process to have extended [this] so close to an election,” said Cllr Bermange.

Cllr Neil Knowles (OWRA, Old Windsor) said his ‘jaw hit the table’ when he heard of the ‘deliberate’ contract extension.

“I think we all feel our hands and feet are tied, and we have a blindfold on,” he said.

Though some councillors felt this motion was all the council could do, Cllr Kashmir Singh (Lib Dem, Riverside) said it was ‘not sufficient’ and that RBWM ‘should not be held hostage by the previous administration.’

Cllr Julian Sharpe (Con, Ascot and Sunninghill) said the council needed to be realistic about housing need in the borough.

“We have to put our faith in the developers and the community to work with the developers to come up with something that’s right for the area,” he said.

He added that it was possible for large developments still to be green and biodiverse.

“Please don’t assume that just because there’s going to be a development, it’s going to be a concrete development,” he said.

Not all his fellow Conservatives agreed – Cllr Leo Walters (Bray) said that ‘Lord Desborough must be turning in his grave’ (referring to the benefactor’s intention for the grounds ‘to be used in perpetuity for sporting purposes’).

Other councillors warned against ‘false hope’ for preserving the golf course, including Cllr Julian Tisi (Lib Dem, Eton and Castle).

“We need to move it on,” he said. “We have a new Government and they have made it very clear that they are keen to force councils to develop more houses.”

Cllr Maureen Hunt expressed concern over the ‘false hope’ that had been given to the Maidenhead Great Park petitioners.

“Anything that is pulled back now will cost a fortune,” she said. “And that’s been the case since before the election.”

Some steps have been made with the developer to negotiate ‘significant lower housing density and far more open space,’ council heard.

Leader Simon Werner said that the improvements are a ‘first step,’ not the end of the process.

“The sadness is, I can only try to influence and persuade, because of the contract the Conservatives signed,” he said.

“With huge sadness, I ask you to support this paper.”

The altered motion and its recommendations were passed through with the majority of the chamber voting in favour.

Speaking at the beginning of the discussion, Ms Quadrino requested an independent review ‘to ensure the public purse and our environment are never risked in this way again’.