Two more car parks and the bus station will be bulldozed as part of Newbury’s 20-year regeneration scheme, along with a row of terraced houses, after West Berkshire Council ruled that the site would be perfect for flats.

Under current planning rules, up to 200 flats could be squeezed in, but it may go higher as town planners will soon have to start finding sites for 9,000 homes in West Berkshire by 2016.

Newbury.net understands that the bidding process will begin in the next few weeks, although the council will have to reveal the design brief to the public before going to developers.

It is expected that the council will include an office extension and refit in the scheme, but West Berkshire Council is still putting the finishing touches to the proposals, three years after a deal with Railtrack – including a hotel, cinema and bingo hall – fell down on planning concerns.

The two car parks – before and behind the council offices – are predominantly used by council staff on weekdays, who will be told to car-share, or use the Kennet Centre multi-storey. The Eight Bells car park is thought not to be part of the scheme.

However, the stakes are high, as there is mounting concern among traders that hundreds of parking spaces are being lost, although the council is committed to including a multi-storey in Park Way, and another between the library and Oddbins in the Wharf.

Elsewhere in the town, the winning bid to build a shopping centre flats, and car park in Park Way will be announced in December, although a courtroom battle looks likely to force the major landowner Blue Investments to hand over much of the site.

A car ban is also likely in Market Place next year to make way for a tree-lined piazza and fountain, as will Wharf Street, with the taxi ranks likely to move to Park Way and outside the cinema.

Meanwhile, two car parks in the Wharf are earmarked to be dug up to make way for a boat basin, and on the opposite side of the canal, Victoria Park will be relandscaped, and a large art gallery and watersports hiring shop built.

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