Without doubt, the key event since the last issue is the significant victory we achieved at the Public Inquiry into the Cliveden affair. We all did well and the National Trust were forced to think again and accept that they were wrong to put profit before the wellbeing of the local peasantry. While technically it was the District Council who held their nerve and refused the application to build 191 houses on the Canadian Red Cross Hospital site, there can be no question but that their backbone was stiffened by the very vociferous and intelligent campaign waged by the the people of Taplow, and your Society was right in there with them all. Even so, together with the Dropmore Estate, we still end up with about 190 more houses - about a 25% increase on the parish housing stock.
For the first time grassroots opinion is being formally sought by the District Council in the preparation of a new Local Plan which will govern our environment for many years to come. These opinions will be embedded in a document called a Statement of Community Involvement which is now a statutory part of the of development of the Local Plan. Our input is in the form of a Taplow Parish Plan managed by Professor Trevallion on behalf of the Parish Council. To that end, volunteers from many sections of the community worked on the preparation of this plan, which represents our vision of what’s needed to maintain or improve our way of life. This Parish Plan has now been formally adopted by the Parish Council and seems to have caught the District Council on the back foot somewhat, especially since we are the
only parish to produce such a carefully researched and comprehensive input to the District Council’s deliberations about the future of the District. The result of this initiative of ours is that other parishes are using our plan as a model! Congratulations are due to all those who have given so freely of their time for the common good.
We may only just be in time to get our voices heard, for the Kraken has awoken! D.S.Smith, the owner of some 48 acres of prime Taplow riverside, which includes St Regis Paper Mills, Skindles, Windrush etc., has decided finally to do something with this investment. To that end they have initiated discussions with the natives on what we think would be an acceptable future use of that land, but how serious are they? It's simple enough to have a meeting with the locals, just to show how caring they are about local feelings, and then do what they wanted to do anyway. With the kind of money that must be at stake here we can expect some interesting times ahead.
Fred Russell
