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News Archive - Week Beginning 12th Apr 2009
Buses
Reading Buses introduces on Monday, April 20th a new 20-minute evening service on its new Premier Route 22 to Caversham Heights, replacing the Number 9 service. Reading Buses chief executive officer James Freeman has said that the retention of the new evening service depends on people making full use of it – in the words of the ‘Chronicle’, ‘use new buses or lose them’. Separately, the RBC has provided a £22,000 subsidy to extend Premier Route 28 – which will now include Marchwood Avenue in Emmer Green. The road had been threatened with no bus service following proposed changes by Reading Buses to its routes 137 and 138, to Peppard Common via Peppard Road. (Reading Chronicle 15/04/09 p9)
King’s Meadow
An eventful few days concerning the redevelopment plans for King’s Meadow began with a major meeting organised by the King’s Meadow Campaign (KMC) on Wednesday, April 8th. More than 160 people attended the meeting at Mapledurham Pavilion, which discussed the opposing proposals of the KMC and the hotel developers Askett Hawk for the site. The groundswell of opinion was for the KMC plan to restore and extend the public baths there (to include a café) with winter use as an ice rink. Several RBC councillors told the meeting that the Askett Hawk plan for a 50-bed / 11-storey(!) hotel at the site, as it stood, was unlikely to be acceptable.
The KMC-organised meeting was followed by an RBC cabinet meeting on Tuesday, April 14th, which discussed the AH proposals – which had had been recommended to the cabinet by the RBC’s sports and leisure scrutiny panel (chaired by Caversham Conservative Cllr Tom Stanway) on March 25th. The cabinet expressed misgivings about AH’s plans, with RBC culture and sport leader Graeme Hoskin saying: “we absolutely will not accept any overall loss of open and green space and the development must be of an appropriate size and scale”. He went on to say that although AH was the preferred bidder, its proposals needed substantial change to get final approval, adding “AH believes it can do it, and if they can’t, we go back to KMC, simple as that”.
General disquiet over the Council's recommendations for King’s Meadow led to the leader of the RBC’s Conservative councillors, Andrew Cumpsty, ‘calling in’ the cabinet decision (which favours AH) at the Council’s corporate, community and external affairs scrutiny panel meeting on Wednesday, April 15th, Cllr Cumpsty has urged the cabinet to reconsider its decision to give AH a period of exclusivity to work on its hotel plans further – instead asking for both AH and the KMC to resubmit their plans addressing the ‘flaws’ in both sets of proposals. The week ended with the matter now having to return to the RBC cabinet for another decision.
Several letters to the ‘Post’ accompanied the week’s news concerning King’s Meadow. A letter from Labour Cllr Graeme Hoskin reiterated his remarks above: “the Council will not allow any overall loss of green open space, the park will not be built on, the trees by the river will be protected and any final proposals must meet our strict planning brief for the area”. A separate letter (under the headline ‘Askett Hawk doesn’t care about our town’) from Val Harding points out that there will be significant disruption and upheaval if the AH hotel plans are allowed to proceed, and that trees on the site will almost certainly suffer. Commenting that the current swimming pool building fits in well with its surroundings, and that “this is a quiet part of the river that has already been marred by Legoland apartments”, she ended with a plea to the RBC: “listen to the people who voted you in – not to the developers who couldn’t care less about Reading”. The words ‘election results’ and the initials ‘IDR’ come to mind. (Reading Evening Post 14/04/09 pp 4,6, Reading Evening Post 15/04/09 p6, Reading Chronicle 16/04/09 p7, Reading Evening Post 16/04/09 pp 4,6, Reading Evening Post 17/04/09 pp 3,6)
Environment
The ‘Chronicle’ provides further detail on the 13 ornamental trees that have been planted by the RBC in the Albert Road recreation ground. The trees include three walnuts, nine Amelanchier and a Liquidambar. The trees have been planted in a line along the recreation ground’s main path. (Reading Chronicle 15/04/09 p23)
Planning – Emmer Green
Under the headline ‘it was entirely wrong’ the ‘Chronicle’ reports on the conclusion of an eight-year dispute between Tower Close resident Mark Bennett and the RBC concerning a strip of land down one side of his home. Mr Bennett had wanted to build an extension on his house, and according to the Land Register, the land was his. But the RBC said in 2001 that the strip of land was designated as highway – and that Mr Bennett would have to pay £6,300 to obtain a change of use. After obtaining help including that of local councillor Mark Ralph, Mr Bennett was able to cast sufficient doubt over the legitimacy of the RBC’s claim to get the bill reduced to £500. (Reading Chronicle 16/04/09 p23)
Shops
Iceland is to reopen in St Martin’s Precinct in October – three years after the discount retailer vacated the same Caversham site to make way for the Marks & Spencer “Simply Food” store that closed there last month. Caversham Ward Councillor Andrew Cumpsty (who campaigned hard for the M&S to be saved) said that the return of Iceland was “welcome news”. (Reading Evening Post 16/04/09 pp 6,10)
Mapledurham Pavilion
The RBC cabinet meeting on Tuesday, April 14th included discussion on the future of the Mapledurham Pavilion. Mapledurham Councillor Fred Pugh told the cabinet that although the building was "past its sell-by date", the Pavilion's management committee (which he chairs) had decided to "go back to the sticking plaster and paintbrush to keep the building functioning". The RBC would not consider any attempt to rebuild the Pavilion for the time being, despite extensive public lobbying on the issue. (Reading Evening Post 16/04/09 p7)
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