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News Archive - Week Beginning 13th September 2009
The editors say: The apparent absence of any consultation between the Council and Henley Rd residents (let alone other users) about changes to road markings/layout is familiar and depressing. You can almost guarantee it'll make using the road worse for everyone. Why does it have to be like this?
Crime
According to recently released Thames Valley police crime statistics for Caversham and Emmer Green, domestic burglary levels were down between July and August in two of the three police areas – the North neighbourhood (Caversham Park Village and half of Emmer Green) and in the Lower Caversham neighbourhood. But in the West neighbourhood (Caversham Heights and the other half of Emmer Green) the level of burglaries increased upon last year. Non-dwelling burglaries (from sheds, offices and garages) were up across all three areas. (Reading Chronicle 17/09/09 p25)
A ‘Get Reading’ exclusive reports that a Thames Valley Police team has been given specific responsibility to reinvestigate ‘cold cases’ across the Reading and other Thames Valley towns – crimes committed years ago, for which offenders have still to be brought to justice. Police staff are said to be looking into crimes dating as far back as 1954. The ‘exclusive’ comes two and a half years after a very similar report in the ‘Reading Post’ (late March 2007) that local police had set up a ‘Dedicated Review Team’ to investigate unsolved serious crimes. One of the cases then being revisited was that of seven-year-old Emily Salvini, who was murdered as the result of an arson attack in Caversham in 1997. (Get Reading 18/09/0p p7)
Planning
RBC planners have told the developer Ardgowan Homes to submit new plans following the building of a block of flats on the site of the former Golden Key pub in Queens Road. The flats had not been built in accordance with planning consent, and Ardgowan had applied last February for 35 ‘minor amendments’ to the original scheme to cover the irregularities. However, the RBC has rejected the amendments, and now Ardgowan has been invited to submit a new retrospective plan to try to gain approval for the building that has actually been built. The matter will be passed on to the RBC’s planning enforcement department if Ardgowan fails to do this. (Reading Post 16/09/09 p20)
Letters from Caversham activist Bob O’Neill and from Paul Bardos and others voice considerable disquiet at the RBC support of the developers Sackville and their proposals for the Station Hill and the area adjoining Reading Station. Bob O’Neill mentions in passing the creation of a series of ‘private and humungous skyscrapers’ as part of the scheme, and says that the RBC has not properly prepared the way via its infrastructure implementation ‘for accepting a mega metropolis on the station’. The letter from Paul Bardos also draws attention to the creation of ’30-storey towers, visible from as far as Henley’ (let alone Caversham), and strongly suspects that the scheme will be given approval at the RBC planning meeting on September 23rd, bearing in mind that it has the Conservative and Labour group’s support in advance. (Reading Chronicle 17/09/09 pp17,18,19)
A letter from Matt Rodda, the former Labour candidate for Caversham Ward, asks ‘what is about the benefits of the new Reading Station development… …that Lib Dems like Gareth Epps don’t get?’. He mentions that the Government is proposing to invest £748m to improve Reading Station, and that Sackville Development are ‘putting up’ a further £400m into the adjoining area, but his letter does not comment on the ‘humongous’ 30-storey skyscrapers that will be part of the scheme, and which be clearly visible from the Caversham skyline. (Reading Post 16/09/09 p12)
Roads
The RBC has spent £1,125 on five new laser speed guns to ‘hunt down’ Reading motorists breaking road speed limits. The guns have been bought in connection with the RBC’s year-long Speed Awareness Campaign, which the ‘Reading Post’ says has been responsible for carrying out speed checks across the borough of Reading. The guns can only be operated by police officers in uniform who can then hand out fixed penalties. (Reading Post 16/09/09 p15, Reading Chronicle 17/09/9 p12)
There is further coverage on the appointment of a traffic warden (a ‘school crossing patroller’) at the junction of Kidmore Road and Oakley Road by the RBC’s traffic management advisory panel. The move comes after 625 people signed a petition for safety measures there after a child was injured at the junction in June. Conservative MP for Reading East Rob Wilson said that he was grateful for action being taken, but was “not sure that this will prove to be a long-term solution”. (Reading Chronicle 17/09/09 p25)
According to ‘Get Reading’, residents’ parking areas in Reading are to be revised, with current zones being made larger. At an RBC environment scrutiny panel meeting last Tuesday, 15th September, Labour lead councillor for transport Tony Page said: “there’s enormous support for resident parking schemes. I have not had a single response to get rid of them.” He told residents opposed to the plans that they “would only get five or six signatures” on a petition. (Get Reading 18/09/09 p4)
In a letter headed ‘Where’s the Council Consultation?’ a Henley Road resident comments that last May there was an outcry over an RBC proposal for double yellow lines on parts of the same road, and that the matter was to be ‘put out for consultation’. However, the writer says that has since received a letter from the Council informing him of changes to road markings in the Henley Road, and argues that these will substantially narrow the carriageway there. The resident says that the road is regularly used by emergency services and by Reading Buses, and that the changes (which have been taken without consultation) will cause delays and accidents. (Reading Chronicle 17/09/09 p17)
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