BUSINESSES are being given six months' notice to find new premises after councillors decided to stop funding an enterprise centre.

Bracknell Forest Council's Executive decided on Tuesday to withdraw funding from the Crowthorne Enterprise Centre (CEC), which is 10 years old this year and just over half its 60 offices are occupied.

The councillors felt tenant numbers were unlikely to increase given the amount of newer office space in more central locations.

Also, the centre had been forecast to lose �135,000 this financial year.

Victor Nicholls, the council's assistant chief executive, said: "We have given the centre's owners six months' notice that we intend to withdraw. I hope this will give businesses the time to find alternative accommodation." Jo Willett, marketing and business development director of Oxford Innovation, the company managing the centre on behalf of the council, said: "It is always of regret when long-established business centres such as Crowthorne close.

"The centre has provided invaluable support to countless growing businesses in Bracknell Forest and I am immensely proud of the staff and what has been achieved.

"We are working closely with our tenants and with the council to offer all the help, support and advice we can about new locations." It has 12,000 sq ft of office space and is based at the Transport Research Laboratory site off Nine Mile Ride.

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