Winnersh Film Studios: Approved plan to bring up to 1,000 new jobs

The film studios now have permission after it was granted by Wokingham Borough Council

Up to 1,000 new jobs will be created at new film studios that have been given the go-ahead.

Production company Stage Fifty opened Winnersh Film Studios last year but its retrospective planning application was only formally passed on Wednesday.

Wokingham Borough Council's planning committee unanimously approved the project.

An agent for Stage Fifty admitted approving it retrospectively had been "undesirable" but necessary.

Oliver Bell said it was a "a reflection of the significance of the challenges posed by the fast pace of the creative industries and the limited ability of the planning system to accommodate it".

He said had work not started earlier, the studios could have lost business and that might have been taken abroad.

The site includes two sound stage buildings and four workshops at one part of the site at the Winnersh Triangle Business Park and four workshops at another.

About 250 direct and 250 indirect jobs will be created at the studios in the short-term. The same number will be expected to be created by the studios in the long-term, Stage Fifty said.

The company also owns Farnborough Film Studios in Hampshire.