Winchester House should get listed building status it is the kind of iconic building that in 50 years time will have huge historical interest.

If it is to be demolished, then it should be replaced with a much lower building.

Either we preserve it as an example of high rise folly or we demolish it and make something smaller.

We do not allow developers to hold us to ransom, we fight back.

   http://www.boxpark.co.uk/

Now that would sort the market out. Get some of these in that spare bit of ground at the back of the point in Market Street and I'm sure it would be a hit. Got to be cheaper than to build an indoor market as well I would think. I have forwarded this idea to MBW and also said that waiting until the regeneration is complete before looking into where the market will go is beyond my understanding. This is why we feel so desperate. Each week we wonder if we will be there again the following week what with all the water problems we have there. Only time will tell but I fear we don't have 1 year, let alone 2,3,4,5 years or however many years it will take to complete their dream snob town. However, we can't say anything or do anything and so we simply plod on in limbo until someone feels fit to actually get stuck into planning a new venue and just hope it happens before we are evicted or closed down. Alas, the future is bleak right now and so we need as much support down there as possible. The council or BRP aren't going to bother looking if the market isn't supported and traders give up.

   This is sad news indeed, and I fully agree about not wanting another "vanilla shopping experiance" with the same old toff shops popping up... I am confused however... Why is the snobbery of regeneration shops so selective? They want rid of Harrods which everyone uses! But now we have a BrightHouse? Notorious for being a tumour on the lower earners lives who go for credit, and now in Princess Square another Pound Shop??? And why is cash for gold STILL squatting upstairs in PS???

   Don't tell anybody, but I am going to stick up for a Tory in the next two paragraphs.

I have known Cllr. Brunel-Walker for a number of years - from before he moved to Crowthorne and was resident in Crown Wood - and know he is passionate about serving the community. When asked for assistance he has always been more than willing to get involved. His record with the Council is probably why he was appointed the Executive Member for Regeneration. Personally not a task I would welcome and I wish him all the luck in the world as he will need it!

Regarding Bob's comment about not living here - Cllr. Brunel-Walker and Cllr. Suke Hayes, by my recollection, a Councillor need not actually be resident in the area they represent, or to that matter the actual Borough/County. A presence, i.e. work is qualification enough. If Suki does half what her mother achieved the Ward will be well represented.

OK, support over.

Frank, Winstanley, Maddie and HK. You all speak sense, but sadly the BRP seems hell-bent on getting a certain class into the town centre. Some of this I welcome, but at the cost of losing all the independants means any identity which may have said "your are in Bracknell not just Anytown" will be lost.

http://38degrees.uservoice.com/forums/78585-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/3544175-bracknell-conservative-association-must-recall-and

   Really should read before posting. to finsish off what I was writing.......... And Hayes (not Dorothy Hayes MBE) lives in Ascot.

   Very sad.

I read what this all and considered the other comments and although regeneration is looking likely most are asking will we get what is needed? IS M&S and Waitrose and other expensive brand names what we need?

Are the right people in charge of this project?

What interests me is why some of the councillors who represent us DON'T live here, or should I say live in the wards they represent. I looked up Mr double-barrelas he is "The Executive Member" represents Crown Wood and lives in Crowthorne, also his colleague Sukie Hayes (Mrs NOT Hayes as I think she relies on her mothers name so people know her).

Be nice to know what right they have to represent the ward.

Back to the regeneration - I think Mr double-barrel choice of where to live and his name is all we need to know.

   Hazel - I hear you and it is a CRIME that the market faces such an uncertain future.

When it comes to the regeneration we know who the strivers and skivers have been. Taxpayer parasites polishing their career opportunities.

A pox on the likes of Brunel-Walker, Bettison, and Barnett.

I think people would be a lot more positive about the plans if we hadn't been pi#%ed about so much before.

   Winstanley, you are right regarding the doom over the market. All we have heard is that once the regeneration is complete, they will then think about the market. I fear it will be too late by then. Still, at least when they’ve killed all our trade off, we won’t then be a thorn in their sides and they then won’t have to worry about re-locating us at all. Simple solution for them!

   Perhaps they are in the Broadway due to the simple fact that rents anywhere else are simply outrageous. It’s unfair to say they are there because they are shops that aren’t used. Although I don’t do a lot of shopping in Bracknell, I still use Iceland a couple of times a week, Harrods, 99p shop and I do pop into the charity shops occasionally along with using some of the shops in Princess Square. My ex husband wants to buy an electrical item and would like to give the money to an independent rather than a large store but alas, there are none left in Bracknell now. Large stores may bring more people in but I personally like to have independents as well to bring variety to a town. I spent many holidays on a barge visiting each town along the way but after a few years, I gave up venturing into these places as each town was a clone of the last. Every town seems to have their staple large stores and little else. It’s very sad how towns have grown into mini London’s and I do wonder if this is what people want. Even walking down Oxford Street is like listening to a broken record – you get to the end of one set of shops only to have the next set which are a clone of the previous 500 yards. Towns need independent stores to give life and variety. Variety takes the mundane drudgery of shopping away. I love going to places like Poole high street (my home town) as it’s full of little shops which you wouldn’t find anywhere else. I have even been known to drive down there for a day out with my daughter just to wander down the high street. Bring on the regeneration but make way for the little shops as well as the giants. I would love to know exactly how much has been spent since we moved here in 1991 on plans and salaries to get this far. We know one lot of “grand plans” cost £500,000 back in 2002 (as reported in this paper). Funny how their timeline only starts in 2000 rather than the 10 years previous though. Perhaps we are all meant to forget those 10 years of waffle!

   ANOTHER 'Broadway shop is having to close becasue of the Regeneration' WHO CARES...they wouldn't have to be in the Broadway if anybody used them..

   WSS - now then pumpkin, how do you know which shops we use?

Glad to see they'll be demolishing such a large part of the town.

Now how about Winchester House?

   I wonder which Broadway/Crossway shop closure we'll be hearing about tomorrow...and the next day? I can't believe that we're FINALLY getting somewhere and people are moaning about shops closing that only a handful if any of them use! How about trying to start afresh in Wokingham or another quiet town?

   The much changed town centre plans displayed last week showed that Broadway and Crossway would all be demolished and replaced with lots of new shops and big stores. Why demolish so much at once when there is so much uncertainty on the future of `big retail'? I fear we will have empty site for years, and that the library, the police Station and Easthampstead House will be cut off from the remaining Town centre for pedestrians. Why not keep Crossway and the buildings on the East side including Harrods until some of the new shops are actually built - and use that for local traders and charity shops - or is the BRP plan to get us to use Princess Square - as well as squuezing existing retaillers into empty shops there?

   I was going to comment, but Winstanley has yet again covered it perfectly.

   Recent announcements have been encouraging relating to the dread 'R' word.

But with two stories this week regarding existing traders - independents who have thrived despite the evident decline of our town centre - it is not difficult to conclude that there is an agenda, if not an outright strategy to rid Bracknell town centre of small, independent traders. We all know the ongoing doom hanging over the market traders.

Barnett and Brunel-Walker appear to think that a bustling, thriving, economic viable town centre can only be achieved by attracting the same old identikit chains you get in every revamped town.

Aside from ignoring the fact that many familiar high street brands are dropping like flies, such a strategy ignores the fact that independent traders who feel valued and encouraged to commit to long term business plans are the vital link in establishing a regeneration that will thrive.

But then just like Phillip Lee, it's quite possible to also see the subconscious snobbery that Barnett and Brunel-Walker possess. While Lee clearly prefers the favoured environs of Sandhurst and Finchampstead - so too our regeneration 'leaders' only want a town full of Waitrose, M&S, Debenhams, and the same old vanilla shopping experience.