Bracknell Forest Council will sell Mallard House and move its Forestcare alarm centre and out-of-hours social care team to Time Square in early 2027.

Bracknell Forest Council is selling Mallard House, its office at Waterside Park, and moving the two round-the-clock teams based there into its Time Square headquarters. Cabinet approved the sale on Tuesday 3 November.

The building houses Forestcare, the council’s 24-hour personal alarm centre, and the Emergency Duty Service, which handles urgent social care calls when council offices are shut. Staff are expected to move to Time Square in early 2027, the council said.

What Cabinet agreed

The decision record sets out three things:

  • sell Mallard House, Waterside Park, for a capital receipt and net running savings of around £25,000 a year
  • spend around £380,000 on one-off costs to move both services into Time Square
  • use part of the sale money to pay for the move, as only £204,000 of that £380,000 is already in approved capital budgets

The sale price has not been published. The report’s financial detail sits in a restricted enclosure. The sale itself is delegated to the Executive Director: Place, with the Cabinet Member for Economy, Regeneration and Adults.

The council says the building is surplus to requirements and no other use for it has been found. External consultants reviewed its estate as part of a programme to cut costs and maintenance bills. Staying put was rejected as poor value for money “with excess space available at Time Square”.

The decision can be called in until 10 November. It takes effect on 11 November if it is not.

What it means for you

The council says residents will keep receiving the same services. A new assessment room is being built at Time Square, which it says will be easier to reach by bus and bike than Waterside Park (Bracknell Forest Council, 4 November).

Before the move, Time Square needs new office space and its own dedicated IT network. The council says the move will be phased to limit disruption.

The two teams answer the borough’s most urgent calls:

  • Forestcare runs lifeline alarms, mobile alarms, care calls and an emergency responder service, every day of the year (Forestcare). The council’s report on the digital alarm switchover said it supports over 8,000 users.
  • The Emergency Duty Service covers urgent children’s and adult social care, mental health and emergency housing out of hours. It runs from 5pm to 9am on weekdays and from 5pm Friday to 9am Monday, for six Berkshire councils, not just Bracknell Forest (Emergency Duty Service).

The council’s announcement says nothing about phone numbers. The Emergency Duty Service is on 01344 351999. In an emergency call 999 first.

The move lands in the same months as Forestcare’s biggest job in years. It is replacing every analogue lifeline alarm with a digital one before the national phone switch-off on 31 January 2027, and the weekly charge is going up. Our Forestcare lifeline story explains the new charge and the timetable.

The office the council already has

Time Square on Market Street is the council’s headquarters. It featured twice at the same Cabinet meeting: Cabinet also approved a £300,000 climate bond to pay for solar panels and a battery at Time Square.