A security fence to prevent criminal attacks and proposals for a new children’s home are in this week’s roundup of planning applications and decisions in Bracknell Forest and Wokingham Borough.

You can view each one by going to the relevant council’s planning website and searching for the application number provided.

Bracknell Forest: Vodafone security fence (23/00752/FUL)

A rise in criminal attacks on Vodafone IT facilities has led the company to seek stronger security at its premises at the Sterling Centre business park.

Under plans approved by Bracknell Forest Council the telecoms company can put up a new razor wire security fence outside its data centre at the business park. It can also upgrade its existing fence with an anti-climb mesh.

A statement submitted alongside its planning application says: “Due to an increasing number of criminal attacks on Vodafone data centre sites across the country, a programme of security upgrades is being rolled out across the network.

“Additional protection is required to any external plant and vulnerable access points into the building.”

Bracknell Forest: Binfield Cricket Club (23/00597/FUL)

Binfield Cricket Club can install a new road on its ground on Forest Road to improve access to parking.

The club says the route the road will take is already used, with visitors parking informally on grass at the north of the site. But the route is now ‘heavily rutted’ meaning grass could be damaged as drivers try to avoid the worst areas.

Bracknell Forest Council approved the plans, which also include new cricket nets, on Thursday, February 22.

Bracknell Forest: Electric vehicle charging hub (23/00783/FUL)

The Shell garage on Bagshot Road has been given permission to replace some parking bays and one petrol pump with electric vehicle charging points.

Four charging points can be along the south of the site, and two along the west. These can replace ten customer parking bays.

Wokingham Borough: children’s home (240453)

A private care provider wants permission to change a house in Earley into a children’s home.

The house, on Wokingham Road, would accommodate up to three children, with up to three carers, two of whom would stay overnight on a rota basis.

Tranquillity Care Ltd says the home would be registered as an ‘Emotional and Behavioural Home.’

A planning statement says the children living there would ‘undergo a stringent impact risk assessment to ensure they integrate with the local community.’

It adds: “The children will live at the property long term, hopefully for many years.”