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News Archive - Week Beginning 22nd November 2009

Caversham People

A new beauty treatment salon, ‘Perry’s Beauty’ opened at 30 Church Street on November 16th. 22-year old beauty therapist Perry Johnson, who is profiled in ‘Get Reading’, manages the salon. She says: “Caversham has everything you could wish for. There is a wide range of shops and restaurants to visit – you won’t be short of things to do before or after you treatment…” (Reading Chronicle 26/11/09 p38, Get Reading 29/11/09 p48)

Education

The Ofsted annual report on schools in Reading has given a high ranking to Caversham Primary School, and has given an ‘outstanding’ rating to Micklands Pre-School in Caversham. (Get Reading 29/11/09 p10)

Festivals

A survey of local residents’ views on the Reading Festival initiated by Warren and District Residents’ Association (WADRA) chairman Robin Bentham has received 73 replies out of a total of 750 questionnaires delivered. Some 51% of respondents said they ‘do not mind’ the festival, with 20% disliking it. Residents who live on the Warren were said “to bear the brunt of the noise and disturbance as reflected by the location of the stronger anti-festival comments”. (Reading Chronicle 26/11/09 p38)

Roads

Gravel Hill, which in effect runs at the back of Bugs Bottom between Emmer Green and Caversham Heights, has been closed for nearly six months now. The consultation period (and six months) ends on the 17th December. If you would like to comment or object, this page is where to start.

The implications of the closure are difficult to assess. On the one hand, the road has become much more of a rat-run lately, probably because of Sat-Navs. Being a genuinely ancient road, it isn't suitable for any significant amounts of traffic. That said though, we rather doubt the road's closure has made much difference to the Oakley Road/Rotherfield Way route which was already too busy to be sensible for a suburban area with schools etc.

On the other hand, since the closure Gravel Hill itself has rapidly deteriorated as the Council, predictably, has done nothing to maintain it. It is quite conceivable that in just a few more months it will be impassable by anything/anyone, including horse riders, walkers and cyclists. Whether a 'dead' road would then make it easier for developers to expand housing further in that direction is a matter for conjecture - some fear so. Quite possibly, this is the real point of the trial closure; stranger things have happened. Certainly, the cited reasons on the Council's web site don't seem particularly convincing.

Schools

The Fundraising Manager of ‘Epilepsy Action’ singles out Caversham Park Primary School in a letter for its efforts in raising money for the charity during its recent ‘National Tea Break’ event. (Reading Chronicle 26/11/09 p16)

Traffic

A lengthy letter from Colin Lee and Paul Bardos provides extensive criticism of the proposals for redevelopment of Reading railway station, saying that it is “a hare-brained scheme that stands comparison with the one-way IDR and bioethanol bus debacles”. Accusing local Labour and Conservative politicians for acting together in supporting the scheme, the writers say that the proposals to move the station’s main transport interchange to the north side of the station will mean that all traffic will therefore have to pass under the railway line, via Caversham Road and Vastern Road. The already congested Vastern Road will be reduced from four lanes to two, and will have to absorb traffic filtering to and from the station, and “the poor old residents of Caversham will be marooned behind a wall of traffic trying to get into the recently narrowed Vastern Road”. Separately, it is reported that an RBC cabinet meeting takes place on Monday, November 30th where the recommendation is that the Reading Station development proposals are accepted and that no public inquiry is held. (Reading Post 25/11/09 p12, Get Reading 27/11/09 p12)

In an ‘exclusive’, the ‘Chronicle’ reports on the £58m first phase of the RBC’s £383m Transport Innovation Fund (Tif) bid. The measures included in the first phase include:

• Cutting bus fares by 20-30%
• A £4.88m pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Thames
• A bike and pedestrian route from Christchurch Meadows in Caversham to Friar Street via Reading Station.

In the words of Reading’s head of transport, Pat Baxter, who spoke exclusively to the ‘Chronicle’, “we want lots more buses and lots more people using them…” (Reading Chronicle 26/11/09 p1)