Park and ride opponents criticised for 'deliberately misleading' leaflet

Reading councillor Tony Page accused campaigners against the Thames Valley Park park and ride of giving out misleading information. Reading Borough Council’s planning applications committee met on September 7 to consider its support for Wokingham Borough’s planned 277-space park and ride. Reading’s plans for the East Reading Mass Rapid Transit scheme will serve the proposed park and ride. Councillors first heard campaigners’ complaints about the proposals. Among a host of objections, they said

The Lexicon, Bracknell opening date announced

Bracknell’s £240 million shopping and leisure centre The Lexicon will open on September 7, 2017. Bracknell Regeneration Partnership (BRP) had originally planned to open the 580,000 sq ft centre in Spring 2017 but bosses have told the getreading website some areas and finishes have been improved and they wanted to ensure all the public areas were finished. The announcement of the opening date comes at the same time as two new tenants. Fat Face and Carphone Warehouse have signed up. That news

Becton Dickinson agrees Winnersh Triangle move

Winnersh Triangle management company Patrizia UK has confirmed the letting of 44,000 sq ft at 1030 Eskdale Road to Becton Dickinson (BD). Medical technology firm Becton Dickinson has taken three floors of the newly completed 61,780 sq ft building and plans to move in next spring. The move is a consolidation of BD’s existing UK sites in Oxford and Basingstoke. Strutt and Parker and Vail Williams represented Patrizia UK to secure the 10-year lease. JLL acted for BD. Mike Fairbourn, UK general

Argos to close Broad Street Mall store

Argos is to close its Broad Street Mall store after more than four decades. The catalogue retailer set up shop in the early days of the mall which opened in 1971 – initially in a unit at St Mary’s Butts but now on Oxford Road – but has now told Thames Valley Property (TVP) the 10,000 sq ft is to close in the new year. Staff will be transferred to nearby Argos stores. In a statement to TVP, Argos said: “We can confirm that the Argos Reading Oxford Road store will close on January 20, 2017 due

TVPF16: 'Relax poor quality Green Belt'

As London grew in recent decades the Green Belt has become a noose around the capital. Leigh Thomas, managing director, Kier Property tol the Thames Valley Property Forum, kicked off the day’s final session – devoted to the Green Belt – saying the concept was to stop urban sprawl. Yet over a quarter of a million homes have been approved on it in the last 10 years, 117,000 of them around London. He said there was no separation in types of Green Belt and said a relaxation of poor quality Green

TVPF16: Convention centre 'could put region on the world map'

Delegates at the Thames Valley Property Forum got an exclusive overview of the Royal Elm Park development from Reading FC chief executive Nigel Howe. On joining Reading Fc his initial brief – 20 years ago – was to get the Madejski Stadium built but he had a further ambition, to brand Reading better. The stadium, The Oracle and the new station, he said had already pushed Reading and enhanced the Thames Valley. Now the proposed Reading International conference centre could go a big step further.

TVPF16: The Bakery enters the Thames Valley mix

Innovation was the focus of the pre-lunch session of the Thames Valley Property Forum with a young entrepreneur illustrating groundbreaking technology – hologram models to display clothing. Carl Bresnahan, founder of Intaglow showed his use of holograms to replace manikins in shop windows and explained the problems of getting seen by decision makers who could help. But a vital ingredient was The Bakery, a collaboration service which matches entrepreneurs with innovators. Dropbox and Airbnb

TVPF16: 'Massive' transition in transport is coming

Thames Valley Property Forum heard how all main forms of transport face great changes in the next few decades including the radical alteration in the system of car ownership. And delegates heard that Reading’s popular bike hire scheme is under threat due to its cost. Speaker Derek Provan, operational strategy director for Heathrow, gave little known data about the airport including the fact 95 per cent of its cargo travels in the bellyhold of passenger aircraft. “When you’re on a flight,

TVPF16: The new workspace explained

While restaurants and bars were wanted by young professionals, the new design of workplaces was unveiled to illustrate where the Thames Valley was competing with fashionable East London. Stuart McLarty, director of DN-Architects took to the stage at the Thames Valley Property Forum and illustrated what he called ‘the demand for the emergence of a different type of office space’. He added: “This is reflecting a workforce today who no longer accept poor quality office space.” He showed off

TVPF16: 'We must respond to priorities of the young'

The changing priorities of young professionals is shaping the future of living and working in the Thames Valley. The message from speakers at the Thames Valley Property Forum 2016 was that to be cool and funky (the forum’s theme) business has to respond to the way the young wanted to run their lives. Andrew Ward, director for corporate relations at Brunel University, said the young were not as motivated to make money as previous generations and their work and life goals were different. “They