Marlow Film Studios meetings ‘should not be held behind closed doors’

Any meeting relating to the controversial Marlow Film Studios ‘should not be held behind closed doors’ a campaign group has said – in light of a new meeting that won’t be public.

Marlow Town Council has sent out an alert to residents that it was approached by Marlow Film Studios to attend a meeting on March 19.

This is to discuss the ‘Studios’ Community Engagement Plan’, which a representative from the studios said is essentially just to establish how the town council would like to be engaged with moving forwards.

In its email, Marlow Town Council said this would not be a public meeting.

However, it would be recorded and available on its website, and residents can submit questions – all of which will be part of the discussion.

Campaign group Save Marlow’s Greenbelt has not been invited to the meeting, and one of its members, Sam Kershaw, thinks it might be ‘a PR exercise’.

“I would judge the meeting’s importance by whether it will achieve anything and I doubt it will achieve anything,” he said.

“The developers have given quite stringent conditions for the development of the film studios.

“The S106 agreement has a number of very demanding obligations on the studio for before and during its operation, and I suspect that’s all they’ll adhere to, [nothing extra].”

As such, the group has opted not to submit any questions.

“I didn’t expect we would be invited,” Sam added. “There’s no interaction between SMG and Dido Properties Ltd anymore.”

“It’s understandable [Dido] would not want it to be a public meeting as there will be a lot of public discontent which would be difficult to deal with.”

However, he still thinks they should be held in public.

“For people involved who want to engage, it’s not ideal,” he said.

“Given the significance of this development, in my view they should have a public meeting in which everyone is invited to listen to what the plans are and provide feedback.

“It should not be done behind closed doors.”

A spokesperson for Marlow Film Studios stressed that this is not a major meeting, rather, more of a bridge-builder with the town council.

“A full range of community and councillor meetings will take place as set out in our planning commitments,” they said.

“Throughout this process we will continue to ensure that those interested – particularly those closest to the site – are kept informed when we have relevant news to share. We thank everyone for their patience while this next phase of implementation, construction planning and buildout progresses.

“A number of announcements will be made over the course of 2026 and beyond – so watch this space.

Residents can submit questions or comments ‘relating to community engagement’ to Marlow Town Council in advance of the meeting via office@marlow-tc.gov.uk