Bracknell Online is an independent news and information site for Bracknell Forest. We work from documents, we cite them, and we have no connection to the council or to anyone we write about.
The borough
Bracknell town with its neighbourhoods, then Binfield, Warfield and Winkfield to the north, and Crowthorne and Sandhurst in the south. It is a small borough of about 111,000 people, heavily wooded in places and hemmed in by Windsor Great Park, Swinley Forest and the Surrey boundary. Because it is small and it is one council, the paperwork actually maps onto where people live, which is not true everywhere.
Why the council matters here
Bracknell Forest has been a unitary authority since 1998, when Berkshire County Council was abolished. There is no county council to share responsibility with: planning, waste, highways, licensing, council tax, schools and social care all sit in the same place. Reading its registers and committee papers is the most direct way to find out what is going to change on your street, and that is the main job of this site.
What we work from
The council’s planning register and committee papers, licensing notices, police.uk crime data, HM Land Registry sold prices, Food Standards Agency hygiene ratings, Environment Agency flood warnings for the local rivers and brooks, and company filings in The Gazette. Every fact carries a link to the original, and where a record is unclear we say it is unclear.
A note on reorganisation
The local government reorganisation running elsewhere in England does not affect this council. Of the Berkshire unitaries only West Berkshire is involved, so Bracknell Forest is expected to carry on as it is, and the geography this site covers should stay stable.
Tips and corrections
Email hello@bracknellonline.co.uk with a tip, an event worth listing, or a correction. Tips are treated in confidence, and corrections are made quickly and noted on the page.
Bracknell Online is part of the GOB Media Group.