Response to Paul Bettison's remarks the Town centre regeneration

11.25.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 15th Oct 2009

Try as Cllr Bettison might to rubbish my remarks about the future of the town centre regeneration programme(Standard, 8 Oct), it is clear that the project is in difficulty and will not proceed as originally planned.

The spin which Cllr Bettison continues to put on this vital project and just about everything else the council is involved with, is only to be expected. He obviously feels he can continue to fool all of the people all of the time!

The planned regeneration programme requires a massive amount of investment and in the current economic climate it is not surprising that the timetable continues to slip.The likelihood of achieving a satisfactory rate of return at the present time must be quite remote. The situation is not helped by reported bid speculation in the Press about the future of Legal and General, one of the project's major partners.

Bracknell desperately needs a better town centre and while other towns managed to do this during the better times, Bracknell procrastinated and missed the boat!

Outline planning permission for this development was granted nearly three years ago with the first phase due to be completed last year. Assuming there is sufficient demand we now learn from Cllr Bettison that this will not even begin to happen before the beginning of 2011 (an election year, incidentally)!

The Council and the Regeneration Partnership have not kept the public and the Press properly informed about this project. Even their meetings are held behind closed doors. Each proclaims it wants to build a town centre fit for the 21st century but the question remains WHEN!

Ray Earwicker

Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bracknell