Bracknell car park demolition: The Ring to shut at night

Bracknell Forest’s planning committee has approved the demolition of the High Street multi-storey car park, closed to cars since October 2023. The decision was taken on the evening of Thursday 13 August, in a meeting that ran for half an hour. (Planning Committee draft minutes, 13 August 2026)

Permission covers more than the car park itself. Application PA/2026/0294 also authorises the removal of the two pedestrian footbridges over The Ring and the demolition of the shop units at ground level on Market Street. (Officer report, PA/2026/0294)

Nobody objected. Bracknell Town Council raised no objection, and the officer report records that no public representations were received at all.

Why it needs permission at all

Demolition of this kind can usually go ahead without full planning permission. The council only needs to be asked whether prior approval is required for the method.

This building was different, and the reason is a specific one. Part of it was last used as a live music venue, which counts as a community facility, so full planning permission was needed. The officer report says the loss of that facility will be weighed up when an application to redevelop the site eventually comes in.

That venue was the Acoustic Couch, a community interest company staffed largely by volunteers. Its representatives presented a petition to full Council on 27 November 2024 asking for help to relocate. A report to Cabinet the following March concluded there was no suitable vacancy in the council’s own property portfolio, and no basis on which it could subsidise the rent on someone else’s premises. (Cabinet report, 18 March 2025)

What it means for you

The travel effects are the part that will reach most people, and they last for the whole demolition period rather than a single weekend.

Around the site:

• Hoarding goes up around the car park before demolition starts, and pedestrians will be signed to use the eastern footway.
• The Ringside access road becomes one-way for the duration, run with temporary traffic lights and marshals.
• Some parking on the Market Street side is lost to make room for the hoarding. Much of it served businesses that were under the car park.
• Three replacement spaces are being created north of Alston House by removing bollards and setting back the water-filled barriers, on top of the nine spaces behind 1-10 Market Street. Pedestrian access to the dental surgery is being kept open. (Supplementary report, 13 August 2026)

On the nights the footbridges come down, The Ring closes completely. The transport statement puts those closures at roughly 20:00 to 06:00, and traffic surveys identified Sunday to Wednesday nights as the least disruptive. On those nights:

• High Street between The Ring and Skimped Hill Lane, past the health centre, becomes two-way with cones and signed diversions.
• Princess Square car park stays open, but drivers leave by the access road west of the bus station onto Market Street.
• The bus stops on High Street opposite the health centre are suspended.

Working hours are fixed by condition. Daytime work runs 08:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 08:00 to 13:00 on Saturdays, with nothing on Sundays or bank holidays. Night working is confined to 20:00 to 06:00 on Sunday to Wednesday nights for the bridge removal.

Councillors added one further requirement at the meeting. An extra informative asks that the public consultation set out in the demolition plan includes advance notice to nearby residents before any night-time work on the footbridges.

If you drive into the town centre, our Bracknell roadworks and travel page tracks the closures that are live now.

The bridges into The Lexicon

Taking the footbridges out leaves two holes in the side of The Lexicon. A condition requires the openings to be sealed and made watertight immediately, and plans for repairing that elevation must be submitted to the council within two months of the permission date and approved in writing before any repair work starts.

The council is agreeing those details with Realty, the shopping centre’s owner. The row of trees on the western side of The Ring is to be protected by hoarding along the eastern edge of the footway.

The money, and the clock

The demolition is part funded by a government grant, and that grant came with dates attached.

The council commissioned a structural survey from Arup in March 2023. It recommended the car park stop taking vehicles by the end of that year and that all tenants leave by the end of 2025. The car park closed to cars in October 2023.

The Cabinet report is blunt about what happens if the timetable slips: the £2.2m “would need to be returned”. The timetable it set out was as follows.

Planning permission was granted on 13 August 2026. The application had been registered on 10 March 2026, with a target decision date of 14 August. Against a plan that had demolition starting in April and finished by December, that leaves a little over four months of the grant timetable to run.

What happens next on the site

No application to redevelop the site has been made. The officer report is clear that this permission covers demolition only.

The land is identified in the Bracknell Town Centre Masterplans Supplementary Planning Document, adopted in October 2024, as part of the Southern Gateway. Its development principle HSCP4 includes the possibility of community facilities at ground floor level. Whether a replacement for the lost music venue appears there is a question for a future application, not this one.

The applicant is the Bracknell Forest Cambium Partnership LLP, the joint venture between the council and Countryside Partnerships. The same partnership built Coopers Hill and is building on Market Street.

You can follow new applications in the borough on our Bracknell planning news page.

Sources

• Bracknell Forest Council Planning Committee, 13 August 2026: agenda, officer report, supplementary report and draft minutes
• Officer report on PA/2026/0294, High Street Car Park, The Ring, Bracknell RG12 1GN
• Report to Cabinet, 18 March 2025: Demolition of High Street Car Park and Support and Relocation Strategy for Market Street Tenants
• Bracknell Forest planning register, where PA/2026/0294 and its decision notice are held