Housing, benefits and a crisis

Many people seem to be working up a lather on the government’s proposal to reduce benefits to those who live in under-uitlised social housing. The aim of this proposal is to encourage small households that are living in large houses to swap with large families living in smaller houses. Given that there are around 1,000,000 overcrowded families looking for larger houses and some 2,000,000 smaller families or singles living in larger houses, you would have thought there might be some scope to swap people around.

However, trying to tackle this issue is fraught with problems, not least of which is people’s attachment to their house and to the community in which they live (and may have lived for a very long time), not everybody wants to uproot themselves when their sons and daughters leave home.
Social Housing
However the key issue in talking about social housing is the lack of new affordable housing coming into use. Had we been building at two or three times the current rate of affordable builds for the last decade or two, we probably would not have needed to tackle the issue of under-utilised houses, as the total stock would have been much bigger and the problem much smaller.

We simply need to build more housing that people can afford to live in and the current planning regime (and propsals in the pipeline) do not make this any more achievable. We need an emergemcy programme to get Britain building.

Parking on Grass Verges

Verge Parking 1a
Since we wrote in Council Topics about the council’s decision to go ahead with an experimental ban on parking on grass verges and pavements, both Meri and I have been contacted by quite a number of residents expressing support for this initiative and asking for their road to be included.

This is clearly an issue which many folk in Tilehurst feel strongly about and which has come through from residents’ surveys we have done in the past. I really hope that we can introduce the ban soon and enforce it. Once people start to receive warning letters from the council and possibly a few fines are handed out, I am sure motorists will think twice about parking on grass verges or blocking footpaths by parking on the pavement.

We have also had a few residents who want to plant flowers and shrubs on various grass verges. People do care about their environment and they do want it to be kept tidy (not necessarily pristine but just neat and tidy). This ban will help us reclaim our grass verges and get rid of the mud patches that are all to obvious at present.

Pothole, more potholes and yet more potholes

8 July 2012 Walnut Way
January and February seem to be the prime months for potholes appearing in our roads. Many of them appear after a winter cold snap freezes water in the tarmac. As water turns to ice it expands in volume and cracks the road surface. Now our roads have never been very good but the current state is worse than I can ever remember. Despite government grants to help pay the costs of effects of bad waether on our roads the council is still struggling to cope. I have certainly received numerous reports of new potholes from Tilehurst residents over the last two months.

Curently the council only orders repairs if a pothole is more than 2″ deep as they try to ensure that the worst potholes are filled in whilst not blowing all the cash on minor holes. The upshot of this policy is that we have numerous potholes that cause bumps to cars travelling over them (and are downright dangerous for cyclists and motorcyclists) and the overall look of our roads is shabby.

The answer would be to spend more on proper fixes and road resurfacing but this is not afforable in the current economic climate. Do keep reporting any new potholes, the council will repair the larger ones. In the meantime the only advice I can give is to drive carefully, and give up on low-slung sports cars.

Tilehurst Petrol Station Given 24 Hour Alcohol Licence

Earlier this evening the council’s Licensing Committee waved aside a letter of protest signed by 146 local Tilehurst residents and granted the owners an extension of their licence to sell alcohol 24 hours a day.

I spoke at the meeting and represented Tilehurst residents but despite my pleas the committee decided there was nothing wrong in opening a booze outlet in Tilehurst Village 24 hours a day.

The only concession made by the committee was to order the owners to keep the shop closed between 23:00 and 05:00 and to serve customers during these hours through a night hatch only.

The Licensing Committee was blind to the potential effects on the village, of late night rowdiness or the obvious open door to any corner shop to follow suit and open 24/7. I dread to think what the long term effects will be of one company’s desire to make a quick buck out of selling alcohol 24/7 in a residential neighbourhood.

More on Tilehurst Petrol Station

Was out with Meri this evening knocking on doors, talking to residents and gathering more signatures for our objection letter. We now have 146 signatures and I will hand them in to the council tomorrow.

We have now talked to lots of residents who live near to the petrol station and it is clear that the vast majority do not want to see the licence extended to 24/7.

Now we need to convince the Licensing Committee on 22 January.

24 hour alcohol licence for Tilehurst Petrol Station

Esso Petrol Station

The owners of Tilehurst Petrol Station in School Road have applied for an extension of their licience to sell alcohol 24 hours a day. This is not welcome news for Tilehurst residents where none of the existing retailers has a licence to sell alcohol 24 hours a day.

We have gone to a lot of trouble in recent years to tackle anti-social behaviour in Tilehurst, working in partnership with the Neighbourhood Police Team and council officers to make Tilehurst Village a safe place and to avoid creating any new focus where small crowds of people gather late at night to drink their lives away.

There are plenty of alcohol outlets in town and along the Oxford Road that are open 24 hours a day already and we do not need them in Tilehurst.

The licence application is due to be heard by the Licencsing Committee on 22 January.

I will keep you posted.

Experimental Ban on Verge & Pavement Parking

As my fellow Tilehurst Ward councillors will know the issue of motorists parking their cars and vans on grass verges and pavements has annoyed quite a number of local residents. After a summer of dillydallying the council is now consulting on introducing a ban for a trial period on the following roads in Tilehurst and Kentwood Wards:

• Westwood Road (whole length)
• School Road (whole length)
• Recreation Road (between car park entrance and School Road)
• Church End Lane (whole length)
• Lower Elmstone Drive (whole length)
• Brooksby Road (between Juniper Way and Overdown Road)
• Park Lane (whole length)
• Mayfair (whole length)
• The Meadway (between Church End Lane and Mayfair)
• Overdown Road (between Kentwood Hill and Brooksby Road)
• Norcot Road (between Church End Lane and School Road)
• Oak Tree Road (whole length)

The arguments for a ban are summed up as follows:

* uncaring motorists park vehicles so that they block footpaths and force mums with buggies and older folk on mobility scooters out into the carriageway.
* parking on grass verges destroys the verges and, especially when it has been raining, it turns them into unsightly mud patches and makes the whole neighbourhood appear run down.
* if all vehicles parked in the orad where they are supposed to park, they would also act to slow down traffic speeds as they narrow the road for passing traffic.

The arguments against any ban are:
* if I park my vehicle on the road it is going to be hit by passing traffic which already goes too fast.
keeping cars off the road makes it safer for motorists who then do not have to weave in and out around parked cars.
* The grass verge is outside my house so what do I care if the neighbours don’t like it, i’t my own business not theirs.

The good news is that this consultation exercise lasts through to the end of November and residents who live along the chosen roads can all have their say. None of us have any idea what the majority of reisdents want so it will be good to see what results come out of this consultation. If there is majority support for the ban then the council will introduce it as an experiment as it will be the first of its kind in Reading.

The Great Planning Debate

Last Tuesday’s Council Meeting gave me the opportunity yet again to press the case for building more affordable housing in Reading and as anyone who has attended Planning Committee this year will confirm, I do take every opportunity to sound off on my hobbyhorse. But this is a really serious topic in Reading as elsewhere in South East England. Not only are we not building enough social housing, we are giving in to the developers at every turn and even meeting our own local policy requirements.

The Labour Administration were pushing through a motion attacking the chnages to the current planning legislation being proposed and saying how wonderful things would be under Labour. I responded to Cllr Ruhemann (Lead Councillor for Planning) as follows:

he seems to gloss over Labour’s magnificent record in promoting house building over 13 years in government and twenty something years as this council’s administration. His opening paragraph alludes to the terrible changes that will lead to a reduction in the number of affordable homes built by an uncaring government. He studiously ignores that pathetic record of this council, under his leadership, of building affordable housing in Reading.

Can he explain to the many young people living in privately rented accommodation in Reading, or still living at home into their 30’s, why, on his watch, the Planning Committee has unilaterally given up on the 50% target for affordable homes in any new development and why he thinks that if developers offer just 15 or 20% that is perfectly fine for the residents of Reading. After all, we are really short of 3 and 4 bedroom luxury houses to buy, we just cannot get enough modern 2 bedroom flats to rent from private landlords. 15 or 20% of affordable homes when we are building just 600 new houses in a year works out at 120 affordable units a year, a drop in the ocean as far as meeting current needs goes.

Can he explain to the 10,000 people on the council’s waiting list in Reading how much he thinks about them when every planning decision is being made?

What is the point of a motion like this castigating the government, developers, and planning policy in general when this Administration does not even take steps to stick to its own policy on social housing, the one thing that Reading Borough Council can do for itself, to follow its own policy and demand that developers build more affordable housing. How can you blame everyone else for the housing debacle in Reading when you don’t even apply your own policy?

Don’t ever believe Labour on housing or planning, they are all mouth and no trousers when it comes to planning for, or building, the homes that Reading needs.