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• Archive Index 2009

News Archive - Week Beginning 4th October 2009

The editors say: The unwanted parking restrictions on Woodcote Way have come about, the Council says, because of concerns expressed by residents. The residents who edit this site are concerned that the Council is incompetent. Is that all it takes for them to act? Will they now resign?

Caversham People

Engel and Volkers estate agency manager Gary Weller is the subject of a ‘Business Profile’ feature. Engel and Volkers in Prospect Street is described at the newest office of the upmarket estate agency chain, and Mr Weller says: “we chose Caversham because it is central to the areas that we cover but also because it has a very varied range of property and architectural features.” (Get Reading 09/10/09 p39)

Crime

A Caversham resident who lives in the vicinity of Westfield Road has contacted the ‘Reading Post’ to express fears that there is a ‘cat-napper’ at work in the local area, after four of her cats vanished over a period of time. The lady describes herself as “devastated and beside myself”. The paper asks anyone with information on the issue to contact Laura Herbert on 0118 918 3025 or else via email.

Following a spate of broken windows and burglaries in the Chiltern Road area, there have been calls for the closure of an alleyway behind the road, which it is believed provides easy access to properties for burglars. RBC spokeswoman for Safer Reading Communications Jo Mill has said that a site visit is to take place next week in connection with local police, to explore the options for the alley – including its possible closure. (Reading Post 07/10/09 p15)

Environment

Caversham Globe (Go Local on a Better Environment) has organised a local used battery collection scheme. Globe has put collection containers at V&I Hardware in Milestone Way, Emmer Green, Caversham Cobbler & Key Smith in Bridge Street and in Woodcote Way News in Caversham. Containers will be emptied regularly by Globe volunteers and batteries taken to a recycling centre. (Reading Chronicle 08/10/09 p34)

Festivals

The Warren and District Residents Association (WADRA) is targeting 700 Caversham homes with a survey to find out the views of local residents with regards the Reading festival. The WADRA survey is in response to an environmental survey being put to businesses surrounding the festival by the event's organiser Festival Republic - the WADRA survey asks whether the respondent actually visited the festival, and if so, what they thought. Copies of the completed questionnaires must be returned by Saturday, October 31st, with the findings being presented to Festival Republic at WADRA's event debriefing on Friday, December 4th. Copies of the questionnaire are available by emailing Robin Bentham of WADRA. (Reading Chronicle 08/10/09 p34)

Planning

The RBC is in the process of producing a document that identifies sites for development, for protection and for other designations - the Site Allocations Document. The document follows on from a consultation in late 2008 on sites which had been suggested for development or protection. Additional sites have now been suggested - including three in Caversham and Emmer Green. Two of these RG4 sites are suggested for development - part of Reading Golf Course in the Kidmore End Road and the Telephone Exchange in Church Street. A third site, involving gardens to the rear of the Upper Woodcote Road, is recommended for protection. The RBC data is contained in a letter which says: "please note that the Council does not necessarily endorse these suggestions at this stage". A consultation on the proposals started on Friday, 2nd October, and comments are to be received back by the Council by Friday, 13th November. Further details on this 'Consultation on Site Allocations: New Sites and Progress Update' is available from the RBC's LDF Team, Tel: 0118 937 3337 or via email.(RBC Letter, 02/10/09)

Roads

There have been calls for improved road safety measures on the Upper Woodcote Road following a three-vehicle crash at the junction of Upper Woodcote Road and Shepherds Lane at 10am last Tuesday, 8th October. None of the vehicle drivers are believed to have been speeding, but one resident said: “they should have a speed camera between Mapledurham Golf Club and the corner, it would slow them down…”. In a separate incident, there was a three-vehicle collision at the junction of Rotherfield Way and Southdown Road at around 3pm on Monday, October 7th, resulting in minor injuries. (Reading Chronicle 08/10/09 p7)

Dan Campsall, representative of the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership (TVSRP) has confirmed that only one in every 11 speed cameras (GATSOs) across the Reading Borough area is actually recording at any one time. The same feature on local speed cameras (there are 70 fixed and mobile camera sites in Greater Reading) has a quote from RBC spokesman Chris Branagan, who says: ‘Greater Reading has the highest number of speed cameras per square kilometre of any area in the UK’. All very interesting. (Reading Chronicle 08/10/09 p7)

An ‘exclusive’ in the ‘Chronicle’ provides details of the three possible congestion charging zones around Reading which drivers could face from 2016. The prospect of congestion charging comes in connection with the RBC’s bid for £313m of Government Transport Innovation Fund (TiF) cash for transport improvements inside Reading. Labour councillor (and RBC transport leader) Tony Page has said that Reading borough residents will be exempt from the charge no matter which cordon area is picked – but exactly who else will escape paying if the charge is brought in is yet to be decided. In an editorial titled ‘Council’s gamble with our roads’, the ‘Chronicle’ argues that the RBC ‘is playing a dangerous game’. (Reading Chronicle 08/10/09 pp1,9,16)

There continues to be repercussions following the decision of the RBC to impose double yellow lines around the junction of Woodcote Way and Fernbrook Road – meaning that local people who use Woodcote Way Post Office can no longer park outside the front of the shop. Postmistress Haminder Hallat gathered 600 signatures on a petition against the lines, but they were painted in anyway. RBC spokesman Oscar Mortali said: “the yellow lines… …were in response to concerns expressed by residents themselves”. Separately, there is comment in the ‘Chronicle’ from ‘Steve’ (who purports to be a local resident) praising the RBC decision to put yellow lines outside the Conisboro Stores in Conisboro Avenue. The writer says that store customer parking there was becoming ‘a joke’, and that he saw no sign of the 300-signature petition against the parking restrictions that the owners of the store were meant to have assembled. (Reading Post 07/10/09 p23, Reading Chronicle 08/10/09 p17)

Schools

Former pupils at the old St Peter’s School in Caversham (also known as Caversham Council School and Caversham Parochial School), that was on the site of the New Directions Building beside the Waitrose Car Park in central Caversham are asked to get in touch with Sam Watkins of the RBC. Sam can be contacted via email or else by phone 07738 916539

Services

The RBC is to vote on Tuesday, October 13th on a proposal from independent RBC councillor Tony Jones to reduce the number of councillors on the Council from 46 to 30. The proposal has received ‘some backing’ from the RBC’s 18-strong Conservative group, and would result in alleged savings of up to £200,000 annually. (Reading Chronicle 08/10/09 p5)

Shops

The new Caversham branch of Iceland opens at its former location in St Martin’s Precinct on Thursday, October 15th. It will be an additional site to the branch already open in Weldale Street, Central Reading – which will remain open. (Reading Chronicle 08/10/09 p24)