TOWN
OF THE YEAR Sponsored by
Winner: Bracknell
Sponsored by the UK’s largest town planning consultancy Barton Willmore, this award provided a town-centre shoot-out between:
• Bracknell and
• Reading
Both are in the process of completing major development and regeneration plans at the heart of their urban community – each aimed at providing a vibrant town experience for residents and visitors.
The judges’ task was to determine which town had enhanced its brand by implementing the best and most successful town-centre strategy.
Bracknell is well on its way to achieving its long-held vision of creating a town centre fit for the 21st century. Since early 2015 extensive town-centre demolition, reconstruction and infrastructure improvement has been ongoing.
By Spring 2017 when the town’s retail and lifestyle destination The Lexicon opens, Bracknell will be able to boast 580,000 sq ft of new shopping, dining and leisure facilities.
The town-centre regeneration including 60 new shops, family restaurants, a 1,300 space multi-storey car park, bus and rail station redevelopments and 12-screen cinema, is part of a seven-year borough investment of more than £500 million.
To sustain Reading’s current significant levels of commercial and inward investment, key economic development, local authority, education and business stakeholders are strategically developing ‘a lifestyle brand’ for the town.
Forged around arts, culture, heritage and a vibrant town experience this branding is aimed at changing any negative perceptions of Reading and
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2016
making the town more attractive to occupiers while supporting employers in attaining and retaining skilled staff.
Reading: Year of Culture 2016 is underway showcasing arts and culture; BID funding will help ‘Reading Abbey Revealed’ boost heritage awareness; while the former Reading Jail site has been released for redevelopment.
David Gower invited Barton Willmore planning partner Kim Cohen to reveal the winner:
“It is a town which at long last is being regenerated to create a modern retail and lifestyle centre” – Bracknell.
Councillor Marc Brunel-Walker of Bracknell Forest Council received the award and spoke later about the winning Bracknell Regeneration Partnership formed between the council and funders Legal & General and Schroders. “It’s been a very successful partnership over the past few years as we have overcome the issues that you will get in a complex 1 million sq ft regeneration. It’s a great model for how the public and private sectors can work together.
“Bracknell is one of the original post-war New Towns, and we are one of the last to have a major regeneration. This is a scheme that has been awaited over many years of false starts and it’s about time that we now have a town centre that our businesses and residents have been asking for, which is actually being delivered.
“With a year to go to the opening of The Lexicon, it is fantastic to see this acknowledgement of all the work and money that is being invested in our town.
“It’s an even sweeter award to win because of the people who have nominated us, the people on the awards panel, the property and investment companies, and all those who have considered it. It’s a jury of peers from around the area, whose opinion reflects that Bracknell is going places.”
businessmag.co.uk
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