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This is the first image of what the Rose Street Car Park could look like when it is regenerated
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Traders asked to shape town centre future

By Laura Herbert
February 04, 2013

This stunning image reveals the town planners’ vision for Rose Street car park – and traders are being asked to help shape it further.

It shows a meeting place with open-air café style seating – and to help bring it to life retailers, traders and people living in the area are being urged to join the Town Team and also have their say on how parts of the town centre not undergoing regeneration should look.

The first phase of the town’s multi-million pound regeneration has been given the go-ahead.

But additional work is taking place to focus on the heart of the town.

Wokingham’s newly-formed Town Team aims to give businesses and neighbours a collective voice on how the town centre is managed.

The team is also looking at ways of attracting more people to shop in Wokingham and ideas to improve visitor experience.

Wokingham Borough Council will launch its Public Realm Strategy consultation next month and is calling for people to share their ideas on how public areas in the centre should look.

The Town Team and Public Realm Strategy are both separate from the overall regeneration, but will run alongside the project as it progresses.

The regeneration will see a new foodstore and hotel built in the town centre as well as open spaces and opportunities to extend the market.

Councillor Alistair Corrie, executive member for regeneration and affordable housing, said: “We have known since the adoption of the core strategy in 2010 that we have to deliver more shops and a foodstore in the town so this project has been about addressing how best to integrate this growth into the town centre.

“If the foodstore was to go on a site outside the town centre it would draw people away from the town centre rather than bringing footfall back.

“We already know, both from research and examples in Wokingham, that many people do link trips to a town centre foodstore with other shopping and activities so locating the new store in the centre of town is critical for footfall as well as helping reinforce and extend retail circuits past more of the existing shops.”

Bernie Pich, head of regeneration, added: “We are working carefully designing the scheme to ensure it’s as flexible as possible and we don’t run into the issues found in much of the existing retail space, which is constrained due to the historic fabric of the buildings.

“We have considered the amount of development we are delivering as part of this project to ensure we leave scope for the future and don’t overdevelop the town with these first phases.

“The project only delivers a proportion of the new retail growth required for the town, making sure there is capacity for the rest to be delivered through other redevelopments in the coming years.”

Wokingham is set to grow by more than a third over the next decade.

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Most recent user comments 29 of 29

While we have shops in Wokingham like Burtons closing not because of a lack of footfall but because the owners wanted to increase the rent by an excessive amount the town doesn't stand a chance.

We need the government to return the rates paid by town centre businesses to council control and then for them to be set at a level that encourages small shops.

There are a number of town centre streets like Broad Street Walk that are crying out to be developed as small shops with flats over. These would encourage the "continental night life" mentioned below.

If we can't encourage shops like butchers to return to the town centre we need other actions like a second day of opening for the farmers market at the weekend.

The council needs a policy that shops like Lidl instead of opening in Molly Millars Lane found a site closer to the town centre. There are numerous other out of town enterprises that could be encouraged back into the town centre with some sensible council planning and incentives.

PoneRana, Wokingham
09/02/2013 at 13:11

Ah yes you're right - I should have known that! I used to look at it every day at uni when coming out from the Chinese buffet ;)

I tend to shop reasonably equally between Waitrose, Tesco and Morrisons. Waitrose always tends to cost a good degree more than the other two - as you say it focuses less on the value goods, and also tends to have far less discounted or multiple buy deals.

alex_f, Wokingham
05/02/2013 at 15:27

alex_f - Leamington has a Sainsburys as an out of town shop only. The in town shop is Tesco. Marlow, Bracknell, Reading and Guildford are Sainsburys. I don't know what Camberley has.

I think that Waitrose could fulfill the needs of any shopper, but some believe it to be too expensive. I don't look at prices enough if I'm honest, but maybe it focuses on premium goods instead of branded, standard or value goods. So you might be right to some extent although I think that's tempered a bit too much by people not giving it a chance and thinking it's only for snobs.

But a "foodstore" can mean anything. Cleaning products are not food groceries and neither is dry cleaning. There won't be too much in a planning permission that can limit what a supermarket sells.

mavdo, Wokingham
05/02/2013 at 14:21

@mavdo - the new supermarket is termed as a 'foodstore' - my hope for this is that it is only limited to food groceries and doesn't expand far beyond this.

I still believe though that Waitrose doesn't fulfill the needs of the majority of families, and certainly the typical demographic of those who will be moving into the north and south Wokingham SDLs. All of the towns mentioned have a Sainsburys in them.

alex_f, Wokingham
05/02/2013 at 12:55

@Stig2 - to play devil's advocate, how would you explain the success of Reading when it has two in-town supermarkets, both Sainsburys that are very busy, or other towns such as Leamington Spa, Marlow, Guildford, Bracknell, Camberley etc etc etc all of which have supermarkets bang in the middle of all the town centre shops? They might not be used for your complete weekly shop, but there are often times that I've used the ones in Reading to pick up things for an evening meal in order to delay going on my weekly shop by a day or two, or to do a mid-week shop as a top-up to my out-of-town visit when I don't have to carry ten bags of shopping very far to my car that is parked for free, or just to pick up some bread and milk.

I think they are useful, as long as their scope is minimised and isn't allowed to creep into the services provided by other town centre shops already in action. However, I think we already have Waitrose in Wokingham. Quite why we need a Sainsburys too is a bit beyond me.

mavdo, Wokingham
05/02/2013 at 12:29

I do not believe that another supermarket in Wkm will increase footfall that benefits the other smaller shops and restaurants. Most people that go to large supermarkets buy their goods and go home. The out of town supermarkets are in a stronger position as they generally have extensive car parking facilities and a vast selection of goods. Under such circumstances, I cannot envisage a situation where I would choose to visit a wkm supermarket. That said.... I do feel that the only way to create additional footfall is the encourage people into the town after 5pm when the shops , coffee bars start to shut. So Well3 has a good point that perhaps trading hours should be later along with additional restaurants and bars to meet additional demand. I too have my doubts about converting the Rose St car park into another shopping precinct when most High Streets are closing them and can't wait to see what Cllr Baker comes up with in terms of parking. Previous proposals have counted the number of parking places all over the town and not necessarily convenient to the market area. In my view, people are unlikely to drive to a town where parking is limited or poorly located. I, like so many on this website, want wkm to be successfull but not at any price.

Stig2, Wokingham
05/02/2013 at 12:20

As mentioned - I've to'ed and fro'ed on the idea of both supermarkets and department stores. I don't think anyone can say what would and wouldn't work with absolute certainty, otherwise our high streets wouldn't be in the mess they are in now. The best we can probably do is to do what mavdo mentions and learn from those towns which work well. The ones which appear to buck the trend have a healthy combination of independents and national brands (higher end ones in the aforementioned towns), even the odd small / independent department store thrown in there (e.g. FACY in Henley).

I agree with PoneRana and Damiano_Tommassi though that I think how Wokingham is and will be for the next few years, a department store is unlikely to help things in more ways than one.

well, well, well - that's actually a great idea. We could potentially end up with a certain buzz in the evenings in the town centre, with people coming home from work dropping into town for a coffee, meeting friends, and making a few purchases at the same time.

alex_f, Wokingham
05/02/2013 at 11:09

Heelas moved out of Wokingham many years ago. It is unlikely that a department store would work now if it didn't at the height of High Street shopping.

PoneRana, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 23:50

I wonder if the ratio of shops to supermarkets is relevant. Twyford has very fewshops ( non restaurants/takeaways) to supermarkets.

Wokingham has very many shops and apparently no demand.

I hope the experts are right but is there any evidence several big brands will come to Wokingham and pay market rents.

Forget about more shops - lets get more people living in Town Centre, supporting existing shops and encourage a good local night life. This might include some shops changing their opening hours in the summer. Perhaps opening from 11 am - 8pm. Continental Wokingham!!

well, well, well
04/02/2013 at 22:09

Agreed - though they are aiming to make units of that size in The Elms Field development I believe. Youre right we dont have much for window shoppers. My view is it takes a combination of brand names and independents to start to become a destination of some kind, or incredibly strong and unique independents (look for Psyche in Middlesbrough for just how a single independent store can transform the high street for fashion browsing!). If there are a few known brands and some independents, people know they can browse and they are certain to find what they want (e.g. In Topman or River Island) but have some independents where they might find that extra special thing. Hope that makes sense - typing on a train on mini keyboard....!

alex_f, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 18:29

Distinctly disabled unfriendly - where is the disabled parking? If this is to scale then there is none within easy reach. Come on Wokingham, lets not make it like Reading - make it disabled friendly or you will loose my money.

K Huffmum
04/02/2013 at 18:19

@Alex_f - the extra retail space in Rose Street and that area is welcomed, as long as it isn't just filled with cafes. In order to become a shopping destination of the ilk you described, we need shops that people can come to and browse for things they didn't necessarily come to town for. We don't have much of that. M&S is too small and seems to want to focus more on food, while M&Co is about it when it comes to the rest when Dorothy Perkins/Topman closes. You don't go to Boots to browse unless it is Christmas, you go to buy toothpaste or tampons or whatever - you go in with a specific product to buy. In the same way, you go to card shops to buy a card, to dry cleaners to get your clothes washed, to a bank to sort out your finances etc. These are not shopping destinations, but they are vital to a thirving town centre.

What we need are more shops like there are in those destinations, not just charity shops, cafes and restaurants.

The general size of the units in Wokingham might mean that chains won't generally want to come in, in my opinion. If you can get better choice in a big Topshop in Bracknell, you won't go to one half the size in Wokingham unless you are already there.

Is there something we can learn from Marlow and Henley about the types of shops there, and see if we can attract similar shops in. I note most of those places have in town, small, supermarkets - ones that don't generally offer extra services over and above groceries, like the Sainsburys opposite the Oracle.

mavdo, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 17:46

I'm glad Rose Street car park is being developed (Not 'regenerated'. Dr. Who gets regenerated.... car parks and green fields do not). What's going to be plonked in the middle of this courtyard? A band stand? Fountain?

Kevin Baker
04/02/2013 at 17:03

@mavdo - very sensible points and arguments as always.

Do you consider though that the additional retail floor space effectively may make it more of a destination? We know it will never rival Reading, Guildford or Camberley - but it can be of the Henley, Godalming or Marlow ilk, which most of us would favour.

alex_f, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 16:56

Good points, Mavdo, and thankyou to Cllr. Baker for updating us.

I am wondering where new car parking could possibly go, though, given that the number of listed buildings means that so few buildings or areas in Wokingham town centre could be levelled. Errrm.... Well, other than on our green spaces... where else is there?

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 16:52

@Cllr Baker - good stuff. Maybe that will finally shut me up (on that topic :) )

I correct my last post - it is Lidl, not Aldi. I detest both stores with equal vigour, but that's a separate point entirely.

mavdo, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 16:42

@DT - More specifically, if putting a Sainsburys in that location will make it more attractive.

Well, I swing two ways on that point. Firstly, it will be in Sainsbury’s best interest to make Wokingham a shopping a destination - the more people they bring in, the more successful they will be. Waitrose has a two-fold success - firstly, they supply one of the best car parks for the town centre, and secondly they currently provide the only true in-town food supermarket (I don't count M&S as a "supermarket" despite attempts to stop selling any clothes and fill their shelves with pre-made luxury salad). But Waitrose isn't for everyone and some abuse the car park it provides.

But Wokingham doesn't contain enough shops to make it a shopping destination. A supermarket doesn't really help that. Some shops in the town will provide services a supermarket could provide and undercut (dry cleaning, key cutting, pharmacy/drug store, newsagents, cards etc). It is also in Sainsbury’s interest to win the business from those places, which will in turn destroy the majority of the town centre.

I recognise the need for an increase in supermarket floor space in any area that has an increase in houses. We’ve had some already with Aldi, but now we'll have Tesco, Aldi, Sainsbury’s (plus Winnersh), Morrisons and Waitrose within about a square mile. We're putting 2000+ houses in Aborfield and Three Mile Cross, where do they shop? There's no supermarket for them for about 10 miles! Why do we need five within a mile of town.

But then remove The Paddocks and Rose Street car parks, and you reduce the number of spaces available. New spaces to Sainsbury’s will be tied to people shopping in the supermarket. That will DECREASE people coming into town if they do NOT want to go to a supermarket.

Wokingham is not sponsored by, or dependant on, Sainsburys (or any chain). It must not be. Ever. Because we'll be held to ransom in some way or another, and the town will fail as a result.

mavdo, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 16:38

Mavdo - we are currently finalising the Town Centre Parking Strategy which will address the issues you raise on the numbers. The objective is still not to lose any parking spaces and based on the modelling we need to provide the replacement spaces sooner rather than later. In parallel we are looking for funding from several sources now to accelerate the additional spaces provision.

I'm sorry that I cannot provide specifics at the moment as our professionals are still testing out some options. But it will be available soon for public consultations.

Cllr Keith Baker
04/02/2013 at 16:34

Haha hard to believe but that's how I'd put it ;)

I do too. No matter what my views have meant to people in the past, I only want for Wokingham to be the thriving community for both residents and traders which it can be and is so close to being. The great people are already here, fingers crossed the changes to be made put in place an equally great environment to both shop and relax, whilst being sympathetic to some of the existing great buildings and fabric we already have.

alex_f, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 16:04

A mini Wokingham? I'm struggling to imagine Wokingham smaller than it is! I do love this little town, though. Let's hope that the 1/10th of a billion pounds we're spending on it doesn't make it worse, even if it doesn't make it significantly better.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 15:51

@Damiano_Tommassi - the best way I would describe Twyford is definitely a mini Wokingham, both in terms of feel and possibly retail mix on a smaller scale. Some great little independents, very few big brands, two main food stores, and some great places to eat. A friendly and pleasant place to shop, with the odd bit of regrettable 60s or 70s architecture. The optimist in me hopes that it is a good indicator for Wokingham. You're probably right it is alot more focused around a single core centre, rather than Wokingham which has (or will have) a number of centres (or quarters, in cool speak!).

Probably the best solution would have been for Tesco to not have moved at all as you've mentioned. Hopefully the new supermarket would be enough to tempt some into town rather than one of the out-of-town foodstores. I actually do believe it will tempt me into town, if I can stop for lunch at Brown Bag whilst doing a spot of shopping. Maybe the southern distributor coming out at Tesco will tempt even less people to leave town!

alex_f, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 15:19

I would think the same, Alex; that a department store would be detrimental to business. Although I don't think it's ruled out yet...

Interesting that Twyford's doing well. I don't know the area well, but is it perhaps slightly more focussed? By that, I mean that if Twyford's shops are all relatively close to the supermarkets that would give one clear explanation of how business has stayed strong.

The difference with Wokingham, I think, is that if you live on the south/west of town, you can (and probably do) get your shopping done in Tesco and possibly Lidl without getting anywhere close to the town. If you live to the north, you probably find yourself in Winnersh Sainsburys each week - miles from Wokingham. Living in the town centre, I already have plenty of places to buy my food, or Tesco just outside of it. I remain sceptical to the idea that placing a supermarket in the middle of the town will benefit the town - it's far more important to have roads that work, and don't have delivery lorries parked across them or are gridlocked twice a day.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 14:41

@Damiano_Tommassi - I've to'ed and fro'ed on this one quite alot in the past. In some ways I would have preferred a department store (which to me gives a town centre a more complete retail offering almost overnight - e.g. like Bentalls in Bracknell), but I've seen / heard some convincing arguments and studies if favour of having in-town supermarkets. I also see the point made that a department store might be more harmful to a small town centre for the independents we thrive for (why leave if everything you need is under one roof? - we get this on a grander scale to some extent with the Oracle in Reading).

It is interesting and encouraging though for us in Wokingham to see another article today on Twyford - and how they appear to have attributed some of their resurgence on the supermarkets in town: http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/business/s/2128328_traders_praise_booming_twyford

alex_f, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 14:28

All fair comment.

Does anyone believe, if I may ask, that putting a supermarket/superstore on Elms Field is going to make Wokingham more attractive to shoppers, bring in more shoppers or more money to the town, or in any other way make Wokingham a shopping destination?

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 14:08

Wokingham doesn't need more shops it needs its current empty shops including those used for art exhibitions brought into use.

In terms of architecture we need the historic buildings in the centre of town to be made more prominent. In particular this means a concentration on the All Saints end of Rose Street and Peach Street.

Start by moving the road opposite the overhangs two metres away from them so that they become a feature with a wide pavement instead of a traffic and pedestrian hazard. The space to do this is already available. This would also improve the access into and from Easthampstead Road.

PoneRana, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 13:18

Damiano_Tommassi - just a couple of comments on your comment (hoping to remain neutral in this one!):

I believe a foodstore has been identified as being required due to all of the new residents from the SDLs and other pockets of development. Whilst Waitrose and M&S are foodstores within the town centre, it could be argued that they perhaps don't fulfill the weekly shop needs of the average person / family (or certainly their pockets), and for that there is Tesco, which is out of town. Or Sainsburys in Winnersh, again out of town.

You're probably very right that they shouldn't have let Tesco move out all those years ago. I don't know what was going on at that time though...

I'm guessing that Wokingham growing by a third is due to the SDLs and other developments. I'm not sure if this is the town centre or the borough, or both. We'd only need about 2 to 3 thousand new homes to grow Wokingham Town by a third, which is possibly the in-town SDLs with a few more smaller developments like the cricket ground and flats on the Paddocks car park.

alex_f, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 13:10

What is it with the square trees. They're in every "vision" of Wokingham. Trees DO NOT GROW IN CUBES!!!

Rose Street is current a very useful car park. Yet no one has any plans as to where the spaces lost both here and in the Paddocks will be relocated. We need the space. Building a car park by Coppid Beech will NOT be sufficient to draw people into Wokingham. Cllr Baker has long said that these parking spaces will be replaced, but recently said that there may be a gap between spaces going and more spaces being provided. That gap could mean they never happen, or they happen too far away to be useful. But the very fact they are going to be lost in the first place seems to have been completely and utterly ignored.

mavdo, Wokingham
04/02/2013 at 12:51

I fail to see what is so ‘stunning’ about this image. I see a plain paved area, a tiny piece of greenery, some very silly square trees, a bland red-brick fascia and a couple of parasols. This frankly is not my idea of ‘stunning’!

What is the architectural vision here? How will people view this dull looking square in 10, 50 or even 100 years-time? Classic? Timeless? Or plain and cheap? I sincerely hope the planners are giving the heritage of what they are about to embark upon their upmost consideration. Wokingham is steeped in history, with wonderful buildings and a real sense of the past. Let’s hope they don’t c*ck this up.

Bracknell is about to have a major rebuilding of the town centre. Let’s hope future shoppers choose Wokingham over Bracknell. Based on this uninspiring image I have major doubts

the badger
04/02/2013 at 12:41

Okay.....

"We have known since the adoption of the core strategy in 2010 that we have to deliver more shops and a foodstore in the town..."

--you have to deliver a 'foodstore' because...? This guy's been to Wokingham, right? he know that there are foodstores in Wokingham town centre already (Waitrose, M&S, and smaller independent stores).

"If the foodstore was to go on a site outside the town centre it would draw people away from the town centre... locating the new store in the centre of town is critical for footfall"

--shouldn't have let Tesco move out all those years ago, then, and turned it into Argos/a restaurant.

Also, I remember seeing pictures that were supposed to represent the new Rose Street car park 1-2 years ago that was very different from this one. Another re-think, re-design, and set of payments to external companies perhaps?

How will they replace the car parking spaces that are lost in the various parts of regeneration and, I'm told by another article, the development of park and ride schemes from Wokingham town centre to Reading (which will be great for improving Wokingham's retail sector, won't it?)/

"Wokingham is set to grow by more than a third over the next decade." - in what regard? Some context, please. Average weight? Population? Retail space made available by the regeneration scheme?