• Archive Index
• Archive Index 2009

News Archive - Week Beginning 6th September 2009

The editors say: Local Doctor Andrew Brewster has developed a website to help cut obesity. If you need to lose weight, making more use of the green spaces we're lucky enough to have on our doorstep in Caversham is simple and free! This page tells you more. You don't need a gym!

Buses

Following on from recent news stories detailing problems at Reading Buses, it is reported that the company has re-introduced its ‘green but expensive’ ethanol-fuelled buses onto Reading’s roads, but has also put 20 buses up for sale in a bid to recoup costs. (Reading Chronicle 10/09/09 p5)

Caversham People

Dr Andrew Brewster, a GP at Balmore Park Surgery, has developed (a website) as a tool to help the public cut obesity by means of preventing heart disease and diabetes through weight reduction. (Reading Chronicle 10/09/09 p6)

Crime

A house burglary in Henley Road on the night of Wednesday, August 19th is said to have resulted in the theft of memory sticks and a computer hard drive containing irreplaceable photos of the burgled family’s young twins. The family has put posters around the Caversham area appealing for information. Separately, a house burglary in Angle Field Road ten days later also resulted in a young couple’s family photos being stolen. Anyone with information is asked to call police on 08458 505 505. (Get Reading 11/09/09 p7)

In a local crime update, Reading North neighbourhood police inspector Penny McKenzie has said that there were 47 crimes or incidents reported across the three Caversham neighbourhood areas in the week from Friday, August 28th to Friday, September 4th. She described the figures as “a real increase compared to last week and does include a number of more serious offences such as distraction burglaries”. (Get Reading 11/09/09 p7)

Festivals

The Reading Pride festival that took place in King’s Meadow over the weekend of 4th – 5th September has been described as ‘the biggest and best ever’, with at least 3,000 visitors. In the words of Miss Isles (described by the ‘Chronicle’ as a drag queen), “it doesn’t matter whether you’re gay, straight, black, white, everyone’s welcome…” (Reading Chronicle 10/09/09 p9)

Pubs

A letter from Sarah Blankfield of ‘Poppublishing’ asks local residents if they have any personal recollections of John Lennon and Paul McCartney (who belonged to a fair-to-middling 60s beat combo called ‘The Beatles’) serving behind the bar of the Fox and Hounds pub in the Gosbrook Road in April 1960. Anyone with information should contact her via email (Reading Post 09/09/09 p13)

A survey of more than 70 pubs in East Reading initiated by Liberal Democrat RBC councillor Gareth Epps has found that most licensees have an income of less than £15,000 a year, and that only half of respondents thin that will be running a pub in five years time. Councillor Epps said that some licensees with pubs run by major pub companies were reluctant to fill in the survey, with rent and running costs being two of the biggest worries for publicans. (Reading Post 09/09/09 p63)

The ‘stylish’ Moderation pub (not in Caversham, but nearby, and we like it) in the Caversham Road is one of two Reading pubs run by Andy Becalick that has been nominated in the Restaurant of the Year (Casual) category of the ‘Pride of Reading’ awards. An accompanying feature includes a lengthy rave about the food there from the lady that nominated the pubs. (Get Reading 11/09/09 p26)

Roads

The RBC traffic management advisory panel was due to discuss improvements at the Kidmore Road / Oakley Road junction at its meeting on Wednesday, September 9th. The discussion follows on from a local petition lobbying for safety measures there, and ‘Get Reading’ reports that the panel was likely to recommend a lollipop person (a ‘school crossing patroller’) at the junction in the short term, with a possible controlled crossing there in the longer term. (Reading Post 09/09/09 p10, Get Reading 11/09/09 p7, Reading Chronicle 10/09/09 p27)

Schools

Ex-pupils who left the former Grove School in Emmer Green (now Highdown School) in 1963-64 are being asked to a reunion that takes place next Monday, September 14th. More details are available via Alan Leary on Tel: 01491 873990.

The recent RBC consultation about plans to expand primary and secondary schools Reading has reported that, of the people responding to proposals to relocate an existing primary school on the site of Highdown Secondary School, 16% agreed and 50% disagreed. Of those responding to proposals to expand Highdown, 57% agreed and 11% disagreed, and of those who responded to proposals to strengthen the relationship between Highdown and Chiltern Edge, 66% agreed and 7% disagreed (Get Reading 11/09/09 p40)

Shops

The Caversham dance shop Dancia International in Prospect Street, which has raised an impressive £2,500 for charity has been nominated in the ‘Business in Action’ category of the ‘Pride of Reading’ awards. The shop organised the Reading Dance Showcase festival in Rivermead Leisure Centre in June this year, the event proving so successful that a follow-up event will take place there in June 2010. (Get Reading 11/09/09 p27)