Changes at Yankee Candle and Beaverbrooks in The Lexicon, and disappointment for a caravan park are in this week’s roundup of planning applications and decisions in Bracknell Forest.

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

Bracknell Forest: Yankee Candle (24/00048/A)

Beaverbrooks in the Lexicon could expand into the shop left empty by Yankee Candle, according to plans submitted to Bracknell Forest Council.

The jeweller on The Avenue wants planning permission for a refurbishment, which includes expanding into the shop next door. This was last occupied by Yankee Candle, which closed on January 19 this year.

Bracknell Forest: Caravan park (23/00622/LDC)

Only part of land owned by a caravan park can lawfully be used for recreation purposes, Bracknell Forest Council has ruled.

The owner of Pinewood Caravan Park near Crowthorne applied for retrospective confirmation that land attached to the caravan site can be used for recreation purposes.

But council planning officers ruled that while this is lawful for the caravan itself – it is not for the land attached to it, which the owner’s father turned into a park-like area filled with statues.

They said this is because, based on evidence, it was likely that the land currently occupied by the caravans had been used for recreation for a continuous period of ten years or more. But they said the same hadn’t been proved for the land next to the site.

A planning statement submitted to the council says the land, just by the roundabout connecting Old Wokingham Road with Nine Mile Ride, was landscaped by the owners’ father in the 1990s and 2000s.

It says he 'really wanted a place for everyone to enjoy. Many residents later used this area for picnics and ball games'.

Bracknell Forest: Trees felled (23/00274/TRCA)

A tulip tree and a maple tree in a conservation area can be chopped down, council tree officers have agreed.

Both trees are growing in the rear garden of a house on Rectory Lane, and are growing too close to neighbouring buildings. But as the home is in the Easthampstead Conservation Area, the owner needed permission before they could fell them.

Council officers ruled that the tulip tree has a poor structure, while the small maple has ‘no amenity value.’ They also agreed that the trees’ growth would be unsustainable as they are too close to the neighbouring property.