PHOTOGRAPHY in the now privately owned town centre has been banned to protect the shops' copyright.

Recently reports of members of the public being stopped from taking photos in The Lexicon have circulated online.

Now, the town centre partnership has confirmed photography is banned in the once publicly owned town centre.

Rob Morris, The Lexicon general manager, said: “In line with other shopping centres, to protect the security and privacy of our staff and customers, we do not permit still or video photography at The Lexicon without prior permission.

"This policy is not meant to stop friends and families taking one or two images for personal use but to prevent images of the general public, copyrighted brands and architecture being widely circulated.

"Permission can be gained by contacting marketing@thelexiconbracknell.com.”

Ed Glasson, from Unite The Union, said: "The problem is transfer of ownership from public land to private land.

"As soon as there is a private ownership involvement in any degree, their secrets seem to be deemed as so important that we shall not be able to know them.

"All of the space in the town centre used to be public land, so it could be used for the public."

Mr Glasson also questioned the upcoming transfer of management of the leisure services in the town.

He said: "They have invested all that public money into publicly owned assets, and now they're going to be ran by a private company.

"I've submitted a freedom of information request to find out which management companies are bidding for the services, only to be told multiple times that I cannot know due to commercially sensitive information.

"The public should have a say in what happens to their services that they have funded." 

Despite the fact that it was never reported that Bracknell Forest Council would be ‘selling off’ leisure facilities, the council has moved to issue a statement re-iterating this.