It's an incredibly exciting time for Wokingham town centre, with the first phase of the regeneration work set to start before the end of July.

Visitors to the town will start to see things happen as scaffolding goes up and we begin replacing the fa�ade of the buildings around the corner of Market Place and Rose Street.

It's a big project as we are taking down the existing frontage and rebuilding it with a completely new look more appropriate to our town centre.

We took the decision to replace the fa�ade of these buildings rather than demolish and rebuild as it's important that shops like Boots and Clarks can stay here in the town rather than leave.

We have made sure the shops in this area can remain open and trade throughout the time their fa�ades are being replaced.

We've also agreed some 'no works' periods with them to ensure there is no disruption at important times such as the run-up to Christmas.

With Wokingham's car parks untouched by these works and remaining open as usual, rather than being a time to avoid the town centre, it's going to be a great time for people to come along to the town and catch up with how it is improving. As we finish works on the different parts of the buildings, we will be removing scaffolding to show the improved fa�ade so there is always going to be something new to see as we move closer to completion next summer.

With the building contractor set to be announced next week we will be revealing more details of the programme, along with the details of how you can find out more as the project progresses.