Pavement resurfacing in Tilehurst

The council will be resurfacing a number of pavements around the town over the next month including two roads in Tilehurst:

Recreation Road – preparation work September 30-October 2 and resurfacing October 17-21

Ogmore Close – preparation work October 2-4 and resurfacing October 24-28

Two further roads in next door Kentwood Ward are also being resurfaced:

Thirlmere Avenue – preparation work September 23-25 and resurfacing October 1-7

Lower Armour Road – preparation work September 25-27 and resurfacing October 11-15

It is always good to see government money being spent on local improvements.

Tilehurst Allotments

Now here is a complicated story that raises its head every few years in Tilehurst.
On one side is the Tilehurst Poors Land Trust, an old established parish charity that provides all sorts of help to local people who have fallen on hard times. And they do a good, and useful, job. It relies on its assets to fund its good works. The assets consist of land (mostl use for allotments plus the Victoria Rec which is leased as a park to the council on a long term lease) and the proceeds of previous land sales all of which allows the trust to provide some £10-12,000 of charity every year. Their only way of increasing their funding for charitable works is to sell off more of the land they still own.
On the other side are the allotment holders who have spent years cultivating their plots to provide sustainable, wholesome, food for themselves and their families.

Some fifteen years ago the trust moved a number of allotment holders off one side of the land at Kentwood Hill and on to vacant plots nearer Armour Hill and Polstead Road. They then proposed to sell the Kentwood Hill land for development and use the proceeds to fund more charitable work. There was uproar in Tilehurst as allotment holders feared the thin end of the wedge and the death of the remaining allotments if they gave way on any of them. There was no thought for increasing the charity’s good works, for building much needed affordable housing in Tilehurst, just an absolute determination to stop any development on allotment land.

And so we have had the same scenario played out between the trust and allotment holders every few years. Currently the trust have abandoned Kentwood Hill (still derelict after all these years) and have given notices to quit to the 7 or 8 plot holders of a small patch of allotments on Chapel Hill, a site which even the trust admit (on their website) would be a very difficult place to develop given the proximity to existing houses.

I cannot see this latest ploy succeeding any more than previous attempts to sell off allotments and the council is in no mood to allow development on such land.
The only way to break the impasse would be for the trust to come to an arrangement with the council and the allotment holders to sell off part of Kentwood Hill (much of which is not suitable for allotments anyway) for development in return for guarantees to retain the other allotments over the long term (perhaps 50 years in to the future). However, this needs sensible discussion between two sides that currently distrust each other.

Here comes the ban

Tomorrow, Tuesday 7 May, the experimental ban of pavement and verge parking comes in to force along a number of roads in Tilehurst. Our local surveys suggest that 2/3 of residents in Tilehurst support the ban. It is designed to counter two local problems; firstly the uncaring drivers who park on pavements rather than the actual road which then blocks the footpath and forces mums with buggies, mobility scooters and anyone else to walk out in to the road. Secondly, the ban will stop drivers using grass verges as parking bays and destroying the verges, leaving behind a rutted muddy patch where grass used to grow.

Since the new signs went up a number of residents have contacted me with worries about getting disabled partners or parents from the front door to a car some distance away on the road. I can understand the problem but common sense suggests that in such cases it may be necessary to ‘block’ the footway for a few minutes to let disabled passengers in to, or out of, a car.

The ban will force more drivers to park in the roads rather than on pavements and verges. One possible result of this is a drop in speeds of cars as they manoeuvre around parked vehicles rather than put their foot down on an open section of road.

The need for social housing

Owen Jones writing in The Independent today has summed up the need for a social house-building programme here. It is needed both to provide jobs quickly (and revitalise the economy) but also, just as importantly, to provide decent, affordable homes for the generations of young families who are otherwise confined to the vaguaries of the private rental sector. Our country has become a haven for unscrupulous landlords who have bought up large swathes of private housing to rent out and maximise the profit on. This includes many former council houses now used as an asset to be sweated by landlords who think nothing of forcing tennants to sign up to a commitment to pay future rents even after they have vacated a property so that the unscrupulous landlord can continue his profit stream even during a ‘vacant’ period on a property only let on a short term agreement.

Neither the government nor local councils are doing enough to provide affordable housing to thw millions looking for secure, affordable, homes in which to raise a family. We need to build our way out of this mess, and quickly.

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.

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.