ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have hit out at the council after planners virtually approved proposals for a film set in Swinley Forest.

Bracknell Forest Council’s planning committee nodded through controversial designs for a set on Crown land east of Swinley Road, Ascot.

The blessing is set to be officially confirmed at a planning meeting next week but this has not stopped a local environmental group expressing its disappointment.

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Posting on Twitter, the Society for the Protection of Ascot and the Environs (SPAE) said: “Disappointingly Bracknell Forest councillors overwhelmingly voted in favour of building a film set in picturesque Swinley Forest despite objections from their own officer, local residents, @SPAE_org, @CPRE and after @RBWM had rejected a similar plan.”

Bracknell News:

Responding to a question from a follower about the film set being purely temporary, the organisation replied: “the damage to the surroundings is much longer lasting.”

Bracknell Forest Council’s owner planning officer had recommended the proposal be refused because the site is green belt land, which is protected from development under national and local planning rules.

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86 others objected to the plan with many, including SPAE, upset at the harm they say the plan will have on green belt land.

A World War Two era TV series is set to be filmed at the site should the plan get final permission next week.

At a provisional planning meeting held last week, Janet Long, planning agent for the application, said: “Obviously I can’t give away too much, but it’s following on from a series which was filmed 10 years ago and then five years ago which were filmed in the US.

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“This is supposed to be a Prisoner of War camp within the woods, a wooded site is very much needed.

“The other areas being used are former WW2 RAF bases, the head office inside the film is happening on an industrial estate in Aylesbury, there is a site in Chalfont St Giles.

“But this site is specific to the desire to create a wooded backdrop for a Prisoner of War camp.”