Lidl at The Point: Bracknell's Plan Wanted Homes There

Lidl has applied to knock down The Point on Skimped Hill Lane and build a supermarket in its place. The building held Bracknell’s Hollywood Bowl, the Odeon and Pizza Hut, all now closed.

The application sits on land the borough’s own Local Plan picked out for something different. It names The Point as the first phase of a “mixed-use residential led scheme”, part of a wider site allocated for around 900 homes.

What Lidl has applied for

The council’s register records the application as PA/2026/0803. It describes it in one line: “Demolition of existing building and erection of Class E retail foodstore with associated access and landscape works.” (Bracknell Forest Council planning register, PA/2026/0803)

The key dates on the record are:

The record lists the decision level as “Delegated Decision”. That means council officers, not the Planning Committee, are currently set to decide it. It carries 35 documents. The council’s register does not load outside a browser, so we read these fields from PlanIt, which copies them from the register daily.

Lidl’s public consultation boards set out what the store would include:

• a sales area of 1,529 square metres, with an in-store bakery
• 103 customer parking spaces, including 6 accessible and 9 parent and child bays
• 2 electric vehicle chargers “with capacity for more”, and cycle parking
• the main entrance via the one-way access next to the Peel Centre, with a two-lane exit onto Skimped Hill Lane
• solar panels providing “up to 25%” of the store’s energy
• “up to 40 jobs”, full and part time

(Lidl GB, public consultation: the proposals)

Lidl says it would be the company’s first store in Bracknell. (Lidl GB, public consultation: welcome) The consultation boards came before the formal application. The drawings submitted to the council may differ, and we could not open them to check.

What the Local Plan says about this site

The Point is part of a 6.54-hectare allocation that also covers the Peel Centre retail park next door. It was adopted in the Bracknell Forest Local Plan on 19 March 2024 as Policy LP 8. (Bracknell Forest Local Plan to 2037 (PDF, 121 MB))

Policy LP 8 allocates the land for “a comprehensive well-designed development”. It lists what that should include:

• about 900 homes, around 600 of them by March 2037
• 35% affordable homes
• specialist housing for older people
• a replacement supermarket of about 3,000 square metres, built before the existing Peel Centre supermarket is removed
• about 500 square metres of offices and 500 square metres of other commercial space
• green space, a play area and a green corridor along the site

The plan expects the land to be redeveloped in three phases, east to west. Phase 1 is The Point, “redeveloped to deliver a mixed-use residential led scheme”. The new replacement supermarket belongs to Phase 2, on the eastern part of the Peel Centre.

The plan also says proposals should be “informed by a masterplan for the site that has been agreed with the Council”. The council’s brownfield register, last updated on 20 November 2025, still lists all 900 homes and records “No application” for the site. (Brownfield land register 2025 (PDF))

None of this means the application will be refused. A Local Plan sets out what the council expects, and officers weigh an application against it and anything else relevant. The officer’s report, which will explain how they did that, has not been published.

Why the timing matters

New national rules on who decides planning applications take effect on 31 October. We covered those when the council prepared for them.

Under them, larger schemes like this one go to officers by default. One reaches the Planning Committee only if it passes a “gateway test” on its significance. If the Lidl decision comes after 31 October, that is the route councillors would have to use to bring it to a public vote.

What it means for you

• The formal comment period closed on 16 September. A late comment is not guaranteed to be taken into account, so send it now if you intend to. Quote PA/2026/0803 on anything you send.
• Contact your ward councillors if you want the application heard in public. The Point sits in Town Centre and The Parks ward. The parish is Bracknell Town Council, which is consulted on applications in its area.
• Lidl’s own contact for questions about the scheme is Southampton.property@lidl.co.uk or 023 8074 2581, as listed on its consultation site.

We will report the decision when it is made. Other applications across the borough are on our planning news page.