Bracknell Forest

• Bracknell Forest came 19th in a recent league table of best areas to live
• it came 5th in the league of the healthiest places to live
• came 46th out of 434 Local Authorities in a list of the most popular places to live and work in England
• came 4th in the top 20 affluent areas of Britain
• has more graduates per head of population in the Borough than in any of the other surrounding towns
• has the headquarters of 46 multinational companies
• has twice as many green open spaces per capita compared to other towns.
• has over 80 parks and open spaces - and over 27 play parks plus 77km or 48 miles of public rights of way
• 20% of its total area is made up of forest and another 20% is designated as conservation areas
• has a colony of firecrests in Swinley Forest. These birds are extremely rare

　Iris 'Bracknell' in Lily Hill Park

• Lily Hill Park has won a prestigious Green Flag award, along with Pope's Meadow, Carnation Hall, Shepherd's Meadow and Sandhurst Memorial Park
• is the safest place to live and has the lowest crime in the whole of the Thames Valley and the third lowest in the UK　At the Look Out in Swinley Forest

• has four birds of prey: peregrine falcons on the 3M building, buzzards, kestrels and red kites. www.berksbirds.co.uk
• has 70% of its households online
• has 254 listed buildings
• has more deer in the Borough now than during the time of the Norman Conquest
• is one of the areas with the lowest unemployment in the country
• has the lowest number of job seekers in the South East
• is one of only three areas to show an increase in house prices
• has probably the highest numbers of cars per head of population in the country

　Our picnic table is the biggest continuous one in the country.

Here are pictures of it being made in situ.

 Thanks to the Parks and Countryside team

and the Conservation Volunteers

'Bracknell Forest is a great place to live, work, study and play. We have good schools, low unemployment, low-crime rates, good health and a good environment and this has been nationally recognised.'

Our Borough appears in the list of top five places in Britain as best placed to survive the Government’s spending squeeze.

The population of Bracknell Forest has grown faster than in most of the country over the last 25 years to 115,000, helped by the lowest death rate in the South.

It has the narrowest gap between the death age of the sexes and also has the lowest mental health problems.

The turnover of population in the Borough is the highest in the country.  On average, 600 households move every year.  Residents here are known for their neighbourliness.

 The new Royal Berkshire Clinic mainly for Renal and Cancer treatment

 Apart from a small settlement in Tasmania (pop 358) we are the only Bracknell on the planet. This is very useful when 'Googling'. 

The Rev Michael Bentley, our Chairman, visited Tasmania in January 2008. The settlement consists of a crossroads and a few houses. Cllr Bob Wade, the former Mayor of Bracknell Forest, has discovered that the settlement was established to serve the needs of the forestry industry but is now a centre for the local farming community. Its economy is based on mostly dairy, livestock, and poppy production for the pharmaceutical industry. All the streets in Bracknell are female names. It has a post office, a take-away and a community hall. There is a suggestion that we should be twinned.

A hotel in the Kerala region of India has been called the Bracknell Forest Hotel. The manager explains that they chose the name because Bracknell Forest, Berkshire . . . . is a nature-protected place in the south of England . . . . and the location of the resort is relaxed and calm like Bracknell Forest.

Eric and Gillian Simms of Roman Wood found a ball fountain in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, similar to the 'Bracknell Ball' outside The Bull Pub in Leverkusen Platz, High Street, Bracknell.

      The Ball and Bull in Leverkusen Platz, Bracknell 

Photo: © Ruari Cumming ARPS (Bracknell Camera Club)

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