Cookham Parish Council has added its voice to a string of objections to controversial plans to open a cancer clinic in the greenbelt.

A joint venture between Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel and Hale Estate Berkshire was submitted to the Royal Borough, looking to redevelop Grange Farm in Grange Road into a specialist oncology centre and café farm-shop.

The agricultural site would be turned into a centre for the Synthesis Clinic and the charity National Centre for Integrative Oncology (NCIO).

The plans promise chemotherapy day units and medical consultations, including nutrition, physiotherapy, psychological support, acupuncture, exercise and art and music therapy.

But the redevelopment scheme proved to be controversial with more than 40 objections lodged against the plans.

Concerns were raised about the pressure on traffic, limited parking and the lack of community benefit, with residents saying the clinic will not be linked to the NHS.

Cookham Parish councillors backed these concerns at a council meeting yesterday (Tuesday) and lodged a formal objection with the Royal Borough.

Councillor Jacqui Edwards (Cookham Rise) said: “We don’t agree with the process which claimed to reuse, redesignate [part of the site] as greybelt.”

“This potential redesignation would severely weaken the protection of the Grange Farm site from immediate or future, full or partial development for housing or other more intensive use,” their submitted objection said.


This ‘intrusion’ into the greenbelt will ‘tend to close’ the gap between Cookham Rise and Cookham Dean, which goes against policies in the Cookham Neighbourhood Plan, it added.

Councillor Mandy Brar (Lib Dem, Bisham and Cookham), who also sits as a Cookham Parish councillor, called in the application if it is recommended for approval by the Royal Borough.

This means it will have to be determined at a Royal Borough planning committee meeting.

In a comment to the council, she said the scheme is ‘inappropriate’ and will ‘significantly’ reduce the openness of the greenbelt, leading to a ‘loss of character’ for the area.

The applicant recognised that the entirety of Grange Farm is ‘unlikely’ to be considered as greybelt – previously developed land within the greenbelt.

But the plans argued that the cancer clinic will be located on a ‘neglected’ piece of land which was previously developed, where the existing agricultural buildings of Grange Farm are located.

When it comes to traffic pressures and parking, the plans say 50 spaces will be ‘more than sufficient’ for the staff, visitors and patients.

Across the café and care clinic, 62 jobs, including part-time and full-time staff, will be created.

Looking at the Grange Road and Lower Road junction near the site’s access point, vehicles may ‘occasionally’ need to wait for another car to pass, but this is ‘not an unacceptable or dangerous’ situation, the application said.

But Cookham Parish Council said it was ‘extremely’ concerned about the congestion in the area and put forward a separate traffic assessment from a traffic consultant looking into the developer’s plans.

It said queues form on Grange Road, which is ‘effectively restricted to single lane traffic’, with parking on Lower Road also ‘adversely’ affecting visibility for drivers.

“The additional traffic generated by the development will inevitably exacerbate these conditions, adding to existing queues and delays and increasing the highway safety risks for both cars and pedestrians,” the assessment added.

“There are inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the calculations which indicate the proposed levels of parking will be insufficient to meet demand, risking overspill parking on Grange Road.”

The application is still awaiting a decision from the Royal Borough, but the full details of the scheme can be viewed on the council’s planning portal using reference 26/00354/FULL.