BRACKNELL News has rounded up some of the most important stories from the last week.
Here are a few of the most significant stories readers should be aware of.
1. Victory for Berkshire farm shop owner as garden centre dreams are finally given green light
The owner of a popular farm shop in Berkshire has finally won permission to realise his dreams after hundreds of shoppers showed their support for his business.
Rob Scott, the owner of Hare Hatch Sheeplands, had applied to demolish existing greenhouses and replace them with a new garden centre building, a cafe and an expanded car park.
Hare Hatch currently serves as a farm shop and plant nursery, but for years Mr Scott has wanted to redevelop it into a fully fledged garden centre. A regular customer of Sheeplands said redevelopment of the site would be a “unique proposition which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the borough.”
Read the full story here.
2. Opinion: ‘Princess Square has no soul and is full of empty shops’
Bracknell residents have seen their beloved town centre go through many transformations over the years.
From the days of a thriving Princess square and Bentall department store to the creation of the Lexicon in 2017.
We asked the News readers ‘what is the one thing Bracknell really needs to improve it’s look’.
The one aspect of Bracknell that came out unanimously was the look and feel of Princess Square in 2022 and the number of empty shops that have slowly dwindled in the last few years and left Bracknell's favourite complex looking like a ghost town.
Read the full story here.
3. Mapped: where new homes have been built in Bracknell
Exactly where the new homes have been built in Bracknell has been mapped after it was revealed that more homes have been built in the area than required to meet Government housebuilding targets.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that 3,487 new homes were built in Bracknell Forest over the last three years from 2018-2021.
Although the Government sets targets for the amount of new homes that need to be built in each area of the country, this target was surpassed by 217 per cent in Bracknell Forest.
Read the full story here.
4. Plan for film studio at Berkshire business park given go ahead
Dreams of the Reading and Wokingham area becoming the ‘Holywood of the UK’ are coming closer to reality as plans for new studios have been approved.
Last week, developers Stage Fifty won approval to complete work to build two film sound stages and eight workshops at Winnersh Triangle Business Park.
Although Stage Fifty had jumped the gun by already starting construction work, it needed to get approval from Wokingham Borough Council’s planning committee to confirm the work was lawful.
5. Protest over plan to build 200 homes in Berkshire village
Neighbours living in a small village east of Reading are gearing up to fight a plan to build hundreds of homes in the countryside.
Development company Mactaggart & Mickel Homes have recently submitted a plan to build 200 homes on the 26.39 acre field north of Tape Lane in Hurst, near Woodley.
Of the 200 homes proposed, 16 would be one bed flats, 38 would be two bed flats, and there would be 25 two bed homes, 57 three bed homes, and 64 four bed homes, with 40 per cent of the development being affordable.
Read the full story here.
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