{"id":2068652,"date":"2025-10-04T13:01:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2068652"},"modified":"2025-10-04T13:01:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:01:18","slug":"i-think-its-selfish-william-and-kate-face-backlash-over-windsor-great-park-no-go-zone-monarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/i-think-its-selfish-william-and-kate-face-backlash-over-windsor-great-park-no-go-zone-monarchy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I think it\u2019s selfish\u2019: William and Kate face backlash over Windsor Great Park no-go zone | Monarchy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For almost two decades Tina has enjoyed early morning walks through Windsor Great Park\u2019s ancient-oak studded open fields with the freedom to let her dog off the lead.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, however, she has noticed disturbing changes: fencing appearing around her regular route near Cranbourne Gate, trenches being dug, hedges planted and CCTV cameras erected.<\/p>\n

Last week she saw three men carrying a \u201cno public entry\u201d sign. \u201cSo, I walked up to them and said: \u2018Oh, are you going to close this area?\u2019 And one guy sticks the sign behind his back, and said: \u2018We\u2019re just checking the size of the sign for somewhere else.\u2019 Then they all clammed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day she had her answer. Windsor Great Park announced an exclusion zone of about 60 hectares (150 acres) of previously publicly accessible land to accommodate the latest home of the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>The Prince and Princess of Wales with (from left) Louis, Charlotte, and George on December 2024 in Sandringham, Norfolk.<\/span> Photograph: Victoria Jones\/Rex\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cDue to the pending designation of part of the Great Park as a Socpa (Serious Organised Crime and Police Act exclusion area), access via Cranbourne Gate will permanently cease on Monday 29 September 2025. As a result, Cranbourne car park will be permanently closed from 7pm on Sunday 28 September 2025,\u201d the park management announced.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> this week with the Canadian actor Eugene Levy at Windsor Castle for the Apple TV+ series The Reluctant Traveler, William spoke of his desire to protect his family from the press intrusion that he and his brother had experienced as children. Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, seven, did not have mobile phones, he said.<\/p>\n

William said of the \u201cinsatiable\u201d media he experienced growing up: \u201cThey wanted every bit of detail they could absorb and they were in everything, literally everywhere. They would know things, they\u2019d be everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you let that creep in, the damage it can do to your family life is something that I vowed would never happen to my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forest Lodge, an eight-bedroomed Grade II-listed Georgian mansion, has been chosen by the couple as their \u201cforever home\u201d. Not all locals are happy, especially those who regularly use the area now closed off by a 2.3-mile perimeter no-go zone.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo the people who lose it, it\u2019s a big loss. There are so many houses they could have chosen, why choose one where the public has to lose such a big chunk of the park for their private benefit,\u201d said Tina, who declined to give her surname. \u201cI am very upset.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI do think it\u2019s outrageous, the way it was done. I think it\u2019s a selfish act.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a lot of deference to the royal family in these parts. Some, indeed, believed the royal family owned the Great Park, Tina said. Today about half of the land is private and half publicly accessible.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>The Grade II-listed Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park during restoration work in 2001. <\/span> Photograph: John Stillwell\/PA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Royal links stretch back to approximately 1070 to William the Conqueror, who used the area as a hunting ground and built a residence here. While parts were briefly privatised by Oliver Cromwell to help pay for the English civil war, the area was enhanced in the 17th century during the Restoration.<\/p>\n

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