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News Archive - Week Beginning 4th April 2010

The editors say: As we said last week, apathy is widespread about the coming elections. However, if there was ever a reason to vote, it's the waste that our Council indulges in - spending our money all the while. The 'buses' item (immediately below) says all you need to know. If that's not a good reason to bother to go to the polling station on the 6th May then we don't know what is!

On a national level, with such a dismal showing by all the main parties one way or another, it's very easy to get sidetracked into either not voting or voting on the basis of personalities rather than policies. As we said last week, we'd urge everyone to vote, but on the national level we'd urge everyone to visit the Vote For Policies web site to find out some possibly surprising truths about party policies first.

Buses

The results of an independent audit into Reading Transport Limited (RTL), responsible for Reading Buses, has found that the company began using bio-ethanol fuel in May 2008 without paying full attention to the cost of the scheme. The RBC-initiated audit conducted by the independent auditors SOLACE is said to ‘cane’ RTL, saying: ”the feasibility of the project was based predominantly on environmental factors without due diligence to the actual financial viability”. The result was an alleged huge public waste of money by the RBC – including £200,000 for a bio-ethanol fuel station at Great Knollys Street bus depot, £322,000 to convert 14 buses on Reading’s Number 17 bus route to run on bio-ethanol (they have since reverted to using diesel), £448,000 for other works to each bus (£32,000 per bus), £118,000 to repaint the buses and brand them as environmentally friendly (really), together with a £2.8m(!) loan by the RBC to Reading Transport to buy the buses in the first place. Reading Buses’ chief executive James Freeman said there had been a management overhaul at Reading Buses since the scrapping of bio-ethanol. The Labour administration of the RBC raised council tax for Caversham residents by 2.2% in late February – compared to an average increase in England in council tax of 1.8%. (Reading Chronicle 08/04/10 p1, Get Reading 09/04/10 p5)

Crime

The landlord of the Hare and Hounds pub in Woodlands Road, Sonning Common, fought off an attempted robbery by two armed raiders at around 11.25pm on the night of Monday, April 5th. Edward Coll needed 11 stitches in his arm after tackling the two masked men, who were described as stocky and wearing dark clothing. One was around 6ft 3in tall, and the other 5ft 6ins. If you have any information, please call the Didcot priority crime team on Tel: 01865 841148. (Reading Chronicle 08/04/0 p3)

Local police have given ‘firm words’ to nine teenagers suspected of starting a fire in Badgers Woods in March. PCSO Rob Dunford said: “we hope we will not be seeing them again anytime soon”. (Reading Post 07/04/10 p2)

Police

Caversham police are reported to have taken the modern initiative of setting up a ‘Twitter’ account – reportedly one of just four across the Thames Valley. The ‘Reading Post’ quotes PCSO Rob Dunford as saying: "the Caversham police team is excited. Over the next few weeks, team members will be able to start ‘tweeting’ about the work we do and residents will be able to follow us…" (Reading Post 07/04/10 p2)

Planning

RBC planners on Wednesday, March 31st approved an application to turn Church Street’s Caversham House into 14 apartments spread over three levels, plus two commercial units on the ground floor. Developer Gainskill Ltd’s project will also include car parking and communal areas. (Reading Post 07/04/10 p2)

Roads

Figures supplied by the RBC under a Freedom of Information request show the numbers of parking tickets issued by location across Reading for the period April 2009 to March 2010. In Caversham, the worst affected streets were the Queen’s Road and King’s Road - more than 100 tickets were issued in each road over the course of the year. Top of the list was Reading’s Oxford Road, where 1,976 tickets were issued. (Get Reading 09/04/10 pp1-6)

Schools

Emmer Green Pre-School’s staff have been donated a new uniform of new fleeces and lightweight, waterproof jackets by the Caversham-based estate agents Farmer & Dyer. Pre-school supervisor Daniela Murphy said: “as a registered charity, the pre-school is reliant on support from local businesses and the wider community… …we are extremely grateful for the generous donation…”. (Reading Chronicle 08/04/10 p27)

Shops

The Caversham branch of the card retailer House of Cards celebrated its 20 th anniversary on Tuesday, 6th April with a fund-raising initiative on behalf of the Sue Ryder Care Nettlebed Hospice. House of Cards, base in St Martin’s Precinct is selling a special range of cards set at 20-year-old prices until May 1, with the proceeds being given to the hospice. (Get Reading 07/04/10 p17)