Councillors voted 5-0 for Amazon's Bray Studios plan: six sound stages, a 936-space car park and an A308 roundabout. The permission waits on a legal agreement.

Councillors have approved Amazon’s plan to rebuild and expand Bray Studios, by five votes to none. The Maidenhead Development Management Committee backed the scheme at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday 22 October.

The studio is on the A308 Windsor Road at Water Oakley, about 5km north-west of Windsor. The plan adds six sound stages, four workshop buildings, a multi-storey car park and a new exit onto the A308.

The result appears on screen in the council’s own webcast of the meeting: five for, none against and no abstentions, with all five members present voting (RBWM YouTube, 22 October). Councillor Helen Taylor proposed approval and the vice-chair, Councillor Siân Martin, seconded it.

The quick answer

  • Decision: approved, 5 votes to 0, on Thursday 22 October 2026.
  • Application: 26/01634/FULL, Amazon Digital UK, Bray Studios, Down Place, Water Oakley.
  • Not issued yet: the permission is only granted once a Section 106 legal agreement is signed. On 27 October the council’s planning register still said “Awaiting decision”.
  • Changes added on the night: stronger wording on community engagement, local jobs, landscape phasing and the A308 roundabout.

What councillors approved

The scheme is the one set out in the officer report, which we covered before the meeting. In short:

  • six new sound stages, totalling 13,837 square metres
  • the three 1950s Hammer-era stages kept, and two temporary stages made permanent
  • four workshop buildings, totalling 11,982 square metres
  • Down Place, the Grade II listed house, restored as the production office
  • an outdoor backlot in the north-west corner of the site
  • a multi-storey car park of about 936 spaces, with a public café
  • a roundabout and a second exit on the A308

An update sheet tabled for the meeting puts the total size of the development at 72,790 square metres. The stages alone add 20,909 square metres (update sheet).

The same sheet confirms the officers’ view on the Green Belt. They treat the site as grey belt and conclude the scheme would not cause substantial harm to the Green Belt’s openness.

What was added on the night

Councillors approved the officer recommendation with extra wording, which they asked officers to write into the conditions and the legal agreement. From the webcast, the additions were:

  • an engagement protocol under the management plan (condition 12), so Amazon MGM talks to the parish council, neighbours and local businesses
  • a note under the employment and skills plan (condition 32), asking Amazon MGM to give the council a point of contact on local opportunities. Officers said the council no longer has a film officer
  • a landscaping phasing plan, added to the phasing condition (condition 34), after Councillor Jack Douglas questioned how an 18-metre car park on the road front would look
  • the design of the A308 roundabout and the car park exit, and the speed limit on that stretch, to be looked at again

The update sheet had already changed condition 34 to fix when the roundabout and main access are built, and condition 12 to take in Bray Parish Council’s comments on filming and the backlot.

Officers told the committee the agreed principles would bind the applicant, with room only for technical changes. The wording will be in the minutes, which the council had not published by 27 October.

The objection on the night

Four members of the public spoke. The first said they spoke for residents of Oakley Green and nearby villages, who were “not against the development” but wanted the process halted for a review of how the public consultation was run. They held up a view from Oakley Green and said none of the application’s images showed the real impact of an 18-metre car park on residents.

The officer report recorded two written objections from residents, and no objection from any statutory consultee. Bray Parish Council did not object, but asked for an employment and skills plan, a peak-time traffic plan and tall native trees along the A308.

What happens next

The officer recommendation was to grant permission once a Section 106 agreement is completed (agenda). That agreement carries the A308 works, a 3 metre footpath and cycle path along the frontage, a new bus stop, a shuttle bus to the stations, £561,470 for the council’s carbon offset fund and the employment and skills plan.

The report set a six-month target for signing it. Until then the application stays open on the council’s planning register, and no building work can start under this permission.

Amazon already has a 2022 permission for a different, nine-stage studio on the site, which the officer report says has been started.

What it means for you

  • If you drive the A308 between Windsor and Maidenhead: expect a roundabout and a second junction at the studio. When the roundabout is built will be set by the phasing plan.
  • If you live in Oakley Green or Water Oakley: the engagement protocol is the route for complaints about filming, noise and backlot lights. Our planning news page will carry the decision notice when it is issued.
  • If you want to work in film or TV: the employment and skills plan sets the local jobs and training targets. It is not published yet.

Sources