• Archive Index
• Archive Index 2010

News Archive - Week Beginning 11th 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

Peppard Ward Conservative Councillor Richard Willis in his role as Tory transport spokesman on the RBC has criticised the Council’s Labour administration for wasting public money with regards the Reading Buses bio-ethanol fuel debacle. Speaking at the RBC Cabinet meeting on Monday, April 12th, he said: “they wanted the headlines for introducing bio-ethanol buses in the run up to the 2008 local elections and they therefore rushed into a decision without the proper checks and a business case being in place. “ A separate, internal RBC report is said to condemn ‘poor governance’, a lack of financial reality in the decision-making and possible conflicts of interest. The Council’s deputy Labour leader Tony Page said it was easy to criticise in hindsight, but no-one would have known at the time that the price of alternative bio-diesel fuel would have dropped so dramatically. (Reading Chronicle 15/04/10 p7)

Crime

‘Get Reading’ reports on an incident of ‘bus surfing’ on the Amersham Road estate, where two youths were reprimanded during March by local police for hanging on to the back of a moving bus. There is apparently a long history of similar incidents in the local area. (Get Reading 16/04/10 p7)

Elections

The full list of candidates for Caversham and Emmer Green wards in the local elections on May 6th are as follows:

Caversham Ward: Christopher Burden (LibDem), Cllr Andrew Cumpsty (Con), Lesley Owen (Lab), David Patterson (Green).

Peppard Ward: Pauline Callow (LibDem), John Dearing (UKIP), Helen Hathaway (Lab), Patrick Little (Green), Cllr Mark Ralph (Con).

Thames Ward: Danny McNamara (Green), Guy Penman (LibDem), Cllr David Stevens (Con), Nicholas Stringer (Lab)

The one-councillor seat for Mapledurham Ward is not up for election again until 2012.

Shops

A feature on Reading’s expanding number of Tesco stores (the company intends to open an 11th banch in the town) comments on the two stores north of the river: in Church Street and in Buckingham Drive, Emmer Green. The RBC sold the freehold of the Buckingham Drive site last December for £1.4m. (Reading Chronicle 15/04/10 p2)