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• Archive Index 2010

News Archive - Week Beginning 22nd August 2010

The editors say: Once again Reading Festival has come and gone with remarkably little real hassle or disruption in comparison to the amount of pleasure it gives to nearly 90,000 people. In our view it's a real asset to Reading and Caversham, and it's good to see local traders making the most of it.

Environment

The King’s Meadow Campaign (KMC) is hosting a fundraising ball on Saturday, October 2nd – described as one of the first major fundraising events by the KMC in aid of its campaign to restore and reopen the open air baths at King’s Meadow.. The tickets for the charity ball cost £45 each and are available from Kay Matthews on 07899 992 651 or by email. (Reading Post 25/08/10 p18)

Festivals

The opening of this year’s Reading festival last Wednesday was accompanied by torrential rainfall and mud, leading organiser Melvin Benn (of Festival Republic) to say that they had lost “three to four percent of the land” because of the flooding. Separately, Festival Republic has donated £21,000 to the new Waterside Activity Centre that is being built on the Caversham side of the Thames (opposite the festival site), where the 1st (YMCA) Reading Sea Scouts will be based. (Get Reading 27/08/10 pp1,4-5)

Planning

The RBC Planning Committee on Wednesday, August 18th decided to defer a decision on controversial plans for a back garden development in Upper Warren Avenue. Residents are said to have ‘turned out in force’ to hear the outcome of two applications for the development of four properties in total on the site of the bungalow called Outlands there, and two neighbouring back gardens. A previous application for five new detached homes was refused by the Council last year and was also rejected on appeal – the Committee decided a deferral was the best move and the application should come back at the next meeting on September 15th. (Get Reading 27/08/10 p15)

Roads

Two new cycle lanes have been added to the Peppard Road following resurfacing work there. The lanes have been placed on the road between the Prospect Street and Surley Road junctions. (Reading Chronicle 26/08/10 p32, Reading Post 25/08/10 p27)

Schools

In the recently announced GCSE results for Reading, Highdown School scored a 53% pass rate of pupils passing five or more GCSEs with A to C grades. At Queen Anne’s, 98% of pupils passed with A – C grades, and 99.9% passed with five or more A to G grades. (Reading Post 25/08/10 p6)
Services

‘Uchooz’, a language, training and development service for young people based in Caversham’s Bridge Street is profiled in a feature. The service offers a wide range of courses to help 16-to-18 year olds to equip them with the skills they need to find work, and the Young People’s Learning Council funds it. Uchooz can be contacted on Tel: 0118 946 3457. (Reading Post 25/08/10 p6)