Mentmore Towers stately home from the air. Photo: Andy Davy CC-BY-NC 2.0
The newest threat to Grade I-listed Mentmore Towers is the draft Local Plan for Buckinghamshire which proposes to build 7,450 new houses, three schools, other assorted buildings and amenities locally. This scheme, known unofficially as ‘Cheddington New Town’ will encroach and impact on the mansion’s Grade II* park and garden and also the Mentmore Conservation area, designed to protect the stately home’s designed landscape of parkland and ornamental farmland.
Mentmore Towers. Photo: Alex from the Chiltern Hills licensed under CC BY 2.0
Mentmore Towers, dominates the surrounding landscape for miles, with spectacular views to the west and south across the Vale of Aylesbury to the Chilterns scarp – a landscape almost unaltered since the C19. If the proposal were to go ahead, the mansion and its towers would cease to dominate the area and no longer be a key view.
Mentmore countryside. Photo: Ben Baldwin
The drone photo below shows the Grand Avenue (looking from Cheddington to Mentmore), with the fields on either side that will be built on. The fine boulevard of trees leading from the house, would go from being a very quiet country road to a busy, congested artery through a huge housing development if the local plan is accepted.
An aerial view showing the Grand Avenue looking from Cheddington to Mentmore. Photo: Ben Baldwin
On the map from the draft Local Plan (below), the cream colour is planned houses, and the blue squares are planned schools; the green is SANG land. All of it is currently arable land producing food. The plan can be viewed here. The proposed development has now become a possibility due to a change in Government planning rules, in the latest version of the National Planning Policy Framework, announced on 17th August 2026. The Government intends to widen the scope to grant a default ‘yes’ to developments close to stations where at least two trains an hour stop.
A section of the Concept Framework Plan showing Cheddington and Mentmore above it. Taken from the Draft Local Plan for Buckinghamshire.
Comments on the draft plan have to be made by 6th September. Make a comment here. Local action groups for Mentmore and Cheddington villages have been set up to combat the proposals.
- Mentmore’s website with its campaign is here and there is a petition to sign and advice on commenting on the local plan.
- See the link for a quick and easy way to support Cheddington with a comment on the plan.
- The response from Mentmore Parish Council can be read here.
Letters and email can additionally be addressed to the local MP for Aylesbury and the Villages Laura Kyrke Smith who has been in discussion with the Action Groups.
Mentmore landscape showing arable fields. Photo: Ben Baldwin
