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News Archive - Week Beginning 20th December 2009
NOTE: This archive entry covers two weeks, the Christmas/New Year period being marked by a) not much news and b) exceptionally heavy snow.
Editor's Note: Like everyone else, we've all been hampered by the snow. The news below was published on the site in two tranches. Firstly, just the item about Reading Council with its associated front page editorial - now contained within the item - was added. Later we were able to add a more general news round up for the period.
Buses
Cuts and changes to local bus services brought about by Reading Buses from January 11th include changes to the Number 24 route through Emmer Green, which EGRA says will leave some current passengers stranded as roads lose services they have had for more than 30 years. (Reading Chronicle 24/12/09 p7)
Caversham People
A Caversham author has received her second award nomination in a year for her literary work. Beth Elliott has been shortlisted for the ‘Red Roses for Authors’ Christmas award for her second novel, ‘In All Honour’. (Reading Post 23/12/09 p38)
Clubs
The efforts of the 1st Reading Sea Scouts to raise £90,000 to replace their boathouse on the Warren, which was burned down by arsonists in January 2005 are described in the ‘Reading Post’. More than 90 teenagers and children use the boathouse, and the Scout group has full planning permission for a new building to be called the YMCA Waterside Activity Centre in the Warren. About £260,000 of the estimated £350,000 rebuilding costs has already been raised, and the Scouts are seeking further donations. (Reading Post 23/12/09 p11)
Environment
The snowfall over Caversham and Emmer Green on the afternoon of Monday, December 21st brought the most extreme winter weather conditions that the local area has seen for a generation. To be precise, the last time that snow fell in such quantities on RG4 was on December 6th, 1986.
Snow began falling heavily at about 1.30pm on the 21st - the shortest day of the year. It landed on top of the remnants of snow from three days earlier, and rapidly accumulated. About 4-5 inches (11cm) fell in total - not a huge amount, but the ferocity of the near blizzard-like conditions that afternoon seems to have taken everyone by surprise. The RBC was wrong-footed (there had been no road gritting in the hours prior to the snowfall) and, significantly, many local employers allowed staff to leave early for the day. This resulted in the increasingly snowbound roads of Reading rapidly filling with traffic as darkness fell. Major thoroughfares in the town became clogged with vehicles, and motorists faced nightmarish travel conditions and long delays. As with Council staff, local police seemed slow to respond to the conditions. They were noticeable by their absence at blackspots such as the roundabout to the south of Caversham Bridge, where traffic ground to a virtual halt.
In Caversham and Emmer Green, problems were compounded by the fact that all hill routes from lower Caversham to the north swiftly became difficult (and in some cases impossible) to use. Police closed the A4074 (St Peter's Hill) to northbound traffic, and all traffic eventually came to a complete halt on that road, with abandoned vehicles compounding the problems of snow. There were similar difficulties on the Peppard and Henley Roads. Police subsequently closed the Peppard Road, and also Sonning Bridge. For a while, bus services continued, but all services were abandoned by 3pm after accidents such as that on St Anne's Hill, where a Number 22 bus skidded and completely blocked the road.
Local hotels quickly filled up as long-distance motorists abandoned their vehicles and sought accommodation for the night. Budget hotel chains saw particularly heavy demand, with the Premier Inn at Caversham Bridge being completely full. Owing to the severity of the situation, Reverend Jenny Dowding invited more than 100 drivers into Caversham Heights Methodist Church in Highmoor Road after 6pm when the A4074 was rendered impassable. Elsewhere in Caversham (such as on the Hemdean Road) local residents took stranded motorists into their homes overnight.
The snow stopped falling at about 6pm. The magnitude of the local situation led to significant media interest - for example, ITV's Meridian Regional News reported from St Peter's Hill on the morning of December 22nd, and featured interviews with local people.
Most Caversham residents will have their own 'war stories' relating to the afternoon and evening of the 21st. A handful of miscellaneous news items relating to that day are gathered below:
A letter from Readibus General Manager Peter Absolon thanking residents on the Peppard and the Lower Henley roads for their kindness towards Readibus drivers caught up in the snow ("you helped keep spirits up and to enable the drivers to eventually get everyone home safely") (Reading Chronicle 31/12/09 p14)
The Reading Post featured as its lead story an item concerning Alix Lynch (21) and her sister Katy (16) who spent 'eight hours clearing snow and pushing cars over Caversham Bridge' on the 21st from 5.30pm onwards. Although many motorists were said to be grateful, other drivers abused the sisters, saying that they were 'part of the problem'. (Reading Post 30/12/09 pp1,3)
A combined effort by local police, 'members of the public and a few 4X4s' managed to get imminent father-to-be Simon Ayerst (and two midwives!) home from the Royal Berkshire Hospital to Emmer Green, where his partner Justine Wass was in labour - just in time for the birth of their baby Remy. In the words of Caversham PC Chris Butcher: "they got there about a minute before the baby was born. It was awesome ..." (Reading Chronicle 24/12/09 p5)
(Reading Post, 23/12/09 pp1-3, Reading Chronicle 24/12/09 p4-5, Reading Post 30/12/09 p1, Reading Chronicle 31/12/09 p14, Get Reading 01/01/10 p3)
Environment
Around 100 homes in Caversham were left without power on Christmas Eve while engineers carried out emergency repairs. Residents in Hemdean Road, Hemdean Hill and Queen Street has their electricity cut off at 11.30am and power was not restored until that evening. (Reading Post 30/12/09 p5)
Planning
A letter from Caversham activists and traffic campaigners Colin Lee and Paul Bardos replies to criticisms of their stance towards the redevelopment of the Reading station area, made in a letter from Sam Hutchinson on December 2nd. The latest letter from Colin Lee and Paul Bardos lists previous examples of ‘waste and lacklustre thinking’ from the RBC, and says that the plans for the station (including ‘the restriction of Vastern Road and the creation of pinch points under the railway bridges’) are a direct consequence of the collaboration between the council and the developers of Station Hill. It is concluded that the effects of the current proposals on traffic congestion, transport and the environment ‘will be disastrous’. (Reading Post 23/12/09 p12)
An article by Isobel Ballsdon, an RBC Conservative Councillor for Thames Ward (and spokesperson for the local Tories on planning matters) says that a change to a Conservative Government would devolve power on housing quotas back to Reading on a local level. Policies would include a pledge to protect gardens (classified as ‘brown-field’ by Labour) by changing the presumption back in favour of retaining back gardens ‘unless a well-thought out development is designed not to harm the neighbourhood’s character’. She also says that there is ‘a crying need’ for transparency in the way that the RBC deals with developers’ contributions (S106) payable to mitigate the impact of development on the local area. (Get Reading 01/01/10 p6)
Reading Council
The editors say: We'd just like to wish all our readers / visitors a happy and healthy new year. The last 12 months have been tough for many; let's hope 2010 sees change for the better. And let's hope that includes changes at Reading Council.
The story of the last few days has obviously been the bad weather. The reasonably heavy snow was quite unusual for the area but it wasn't unprecedented. You don't have to go back far to find previous heavy snow falls and, of course, there was some snow earlier in the year.
Sadly, what also wasn't unprecedented was the Council's more-or-less total failure to respond to it. (Indeed, according to some reports their only response was to send their own staff home early.) When criticised, the response was that they were 'having top level meetings' about it, similar waffle about 'lessons to be learned' and other vacuous platitudes.
In many instances, ordinary people rallied round and helped friends, neighbours, relatives and total strangers and that's all to the good. It's also in stark contrast to the Council.
The Council is a public service. Like so many areas of the public sector, it seems to have totally forgotten that they only exist because we, the public, pay for them, and that their only purpose is to serve the public. That is it. Full stop. End of story. And, manifestly, Reading's Council did anything but.
The consequences of this failure are numerous. Main roads cleared after a while - despite the absence of any ploughing or gritting - but side roads and paths were left treacherous for days. Many people were injured - in some cases badly - as a result of falls that could have been avoided if the Council had served the public. People - particularly the elderly and infirm - have been trapped in their houses for days at end. There have been real worries about picking up prescriptions, even basic food stuffs, and it's all been unnecessary.
Quite staggeringly, even the paths around the Royal Berks Hospital weren't treated. You had people coming out of A&E after being treated for breaks and sprains having to slither and slide to cars, buses (if they could find one) or home on foot.
The only conclusion that can be reached is that no-one in the Council gave a damn. It is either that, or that they are completely and utterly 'not fit for purpose'. Take your pick - and remember the events of the week before Christmas next time you can vote.
Our picture (below) shows the Henley Road as it comes in to Caversham on the evening of the 21st December. The message pretty well sums up the Council's attitude: 'let's wash our hands of any responsibility' was the best they could come up with. Quite where the Council thought motorists should 'turn back' to remains a mystery.
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