u/WokyBoroughCoun

Hi everyone, hope you’ve been coping in the heat… 🫠

As you may (or may not!) know, we've recently completed our long-running regeneration of Wokingham town centre.

This has taken many years and consisted of many parts, some finished ages ago and others more recently, so we're spotlighting the whole thing across our channels.

We've also added a major new section to our website which gives an overview of the regen and its impact, including interviews with people who've benefited.

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Why the regeneration?

If you're relatively new to the town, you might not realise how many improvements we've made to keep it attractive for residents, visitors and businesses.

In the early 2000s, before this project started, Wokingham had a lot of small and poor quality retail units, was dominated by cars and didn't have many decent outdoor or indoor leisure facilities.

The regeneration followed from our 2010 town centre masterplan, which we developed after extensive consultation and set out how the town should develop to 2026.

It was funded by a combination of responsible borrowing, sales of homes, partner contributions and funding from developers building in the area.

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Key aspects of the scheme are:

👉 The creation of Peach Place and modernisation of Bush Walk, with attractive shop and restaurant units and a central public space

👉 The transformation of Elms Field and its surroundings, with a new cinema, hotel, shops, restaurants and new homes

👉 A new leisure centre, library and more at Carnival Hub, replacing the outdated Carnival Pool building, with new flats on site

👉 The pedestrianisation of Market Place with improvements for all road users on surrounding streets

👉 Improvements around Wokingham station to the road layout and parking, plus better bus, walking and cycling access

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You can also find out:

🤔 How the regeneration is supporting the local economy

🤔 How it's helped to build more of a sense of community

🤔 How we put sustainability at the heart of the project

🤔 How we funded the regeneration

⏳ How it came together, year by year

🏆 The awards which the regeneration has won

🔮 Planned improvements in the town centre beyond 2026

If you have any questions, we’ll try to answer them here. Please be patient though, as we might need to go back to the project team!

Hi everyone, 

Now that we’ve opened a new link road as part of the South Wokingham Distributor Road (SWDR) project, we'd like to explain why we’re building it, how work has gone and what’s still to come. 

A diagram showing the completed road layout at the eastern end of the SWDR

The SWDR should be completed by early 2027 and if you want to receive regular project updates, you can subscribe to our South Wokingham community newsletter. 

Why is the road needed? 

The SWDR is part of our major new roads scheme and will run between Finchampstead Road and London Road in Wokingham town. 

It’ll be a key access route for new homes and other infrastructure that are going be built on land to the south of the railway. 

South Wokingham is one of four strategic development locations (SDLs) in the borough, along with Arborfield Garrison, Shinfield and North Wokingham. 

We have to support the provision of a certain number of homes every year to meet national targets and local need. 

More than 600 homes have already been built to the north of the railway at Montague Park

South Wokingham SDL will have about 2,500 new homes, two new primary schools, shops and other amenities in two neighbourhood centres and public green spaces. 

Like other infrastructure in this area, the SWDR is being funded by developers as part of their legal agreements, with initial forward funding from the Government. 

What's happened so far? 

Some parts of the SWDR are already finished including William Heelas Way, part of the Montague Park housing development, which opened in summer 2015.

That’s linked to Eastern Gateway, which was finished and opened in 2022, and includes a new railway bridge, which permanently replaces the Waterloo Road level crossing.  

Western Gateway, where we've built a bigger roundabout at the junction of Finchampstead Road and Molly Millars Lane, was finished in April this year and included improvements at the Tesco roundabout to the north. 

A drone image showing Western Gateway and the Tesco roundabout

At the end of May, we opened a new link road between Easthampstead Road and the Waterloo Road roundabout, which will eventually link to the finished SWDR. You can watch a video to see how it fits into the existing layout. 

What work is yet to be completed? 

Still to come is the Central Section, which will run between the roundabout on Waterloo Road and the roundabout next to Tesco on Finchampstead Road. 

This will cross the Emm Brook via a new road bridge, with measures to offset any increased flood risk, including drainage channels and ponds. 

There’ll be a separate footbridge, to be built alongside the road bridge, which will be highly accessible and a significant improvement on the existing footpath crossing. 

The Central Section of the SWDR, with the new bridge in position

Where Easthampstead Road meets the distributor road, there will be a three-way junction with traffic lights to provide access to and from the northern part of Easthampstead Road. 

The southern part will become a cul-de-sac with pedestrian and cycle access only, with all through traffic using the link road.  

Easthampstead Road is now closed to all traffic between Star Lane and Heathlands Road, including cyclists and pedestrians, until work is completed in early 2027.  

We’ll also need to do some more work on Finchampstead Road to join the Tesco roundabout to the SWDR and re-route access to the supermarket car park (photo below). 

More detail to come on supporting works 

We’re also looking to improve the junction of Peacock Lane and Waterloo Road with a new roundabout. Bracknell Forest Council have approved our planning application and we’ll share more details when we’ve finalised our works plan. 

Any questions? 

If you have any questions, leave them here and we’ll do our best to answer them – but please give us time to go back and check things with the project team. 

They’re working hard to ensure the new road is finished as quickly and safely as possible, so they may need time to provide more information. 

Hi everyone, hope you aren't melting too much. 🌞

Just to let you know that the closure points and diversions on Woodlands Avenue are set to change this Thursday (28 May) for works on our new active travel route to Palmer Park.

The closure is currently between Woodway and Howth Drive but will be shifting further west to between Howth Drive and Fairwater Drive.

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You can see how the rest of the Woodlands Avenue phase will unfold on the diagram above, or check out our website for the construction timeframes.

You can also check out the closure and diversion on our interactive map, where all upcoming closures (whether they're ours or by other bodies like utility firms) are listed.

The full route runs along Woodlands Avenue, Church Road, Palmerstone Road and Culver Lane, and we'll be doing more works on Church Road and Culver Lane between mid-summer and the end of this year.

As with Woodlands Avenue, that's mostly to install sections of segregated cycle track as well as several new crossings. No physical changes are being made on Palmerstone Road as they aren't needed.

You can keep up with all the latest highways and transport updates by signing up to our weekly Moving Around the Borough newsletter.

Hi everyone,

We're getting ready to start our road and footway maintenance programme for 2026/27, and we've shared everything you need to know about it in this newsletter.

Above: full resurfacing treatments are carried out on roads that would benefit the most

Want the TL;DR version? ⏩

This is where we resurface our more badly damaged roads and treat the less badly damaged ones to stop them getting worse, which does involve temporary closures or traffic lights.

Like all councils, funding remains an ongoing concern and a full resurfacing is more expensive, so we have to spend money where it's needed most.

We choose roads based on our annual inspections, which we carry out all year round, as well as the reports that you send us.

This is on top of our reactive repairs, which are also based on what we find and what you tell us.

If you've reported damage, you can track its progress online and we'll even send you updates as long as you leave your details.

We investigate all reports and always meet our legal duty to keep you safe, but some types of damage fall below the threshold for repair because they don't pose a risk.

We'll try to answer any questions, but please check the links in this post as the answer is likely to be there!

Above: surface dressing is one of several more cost-effective alternatives to resurfacing and prevents deterioration

Also, some handy links for more information:

👉 want weekly updates and more deep dives into highways and transport matters? Sign up for our Moving Around the Borough newsletter

👉 ...aaaaaaand just a general reminder that you can plan your journey using our roadworks list or interactive map