Car Park Charges Frozen

 Good news for Tilehurst residents !  Recreation Road and Dunstall Close car parks are having their charges frozen for another year following negotiations between the Council and NCP who run the car parks on their behalf. It means that Tilehurst shoppers can still park for free for one hour and do their shopping, it is only the second and subsequent hours that are charged.

Actually the car park charges are only enforced between 10:00 and 15:00 so outside these times you can park for free for as long as you want !

Reading’s Missing Bus Station

In all the various council meetings over the last two years where we have discussed the rebuilding of Reading station and the Station Hill area south of it, I and my Lib Dem colleagues have been consistent in calling for a new bus station to replace the current one we are going to lose. Reading’s bus network is centred on the station which is a terminus afor many routes bringing passengers in to the town centre.

The current development plans drawn up by the Labour Administration, supported and continued by the Tories has been to do away with any sort of bus station and to drop passengers at bus stops on the roads surrounding the station where they will fall into streets already busy with pedestrian traffic. There will be no kiosk for a cup of tea, no covered walkway from the station entrance, no toilet facilites and definitely no bus information desk. In short there will be a complete lack of facilities for bus passengers who will have to walk through crowded streets to find their own way to a bus stop. This will obviously be a splendid way to welcome visitors to Reading……’oh you want to catch the bus, well cross over the station plaza turn left and take the next turning on the right and half way down the street you should find a bus stop.’

Unlike Bolton, Cardiff, Derby, Liverpool, Mansfield, Stoke, Stourbridge, Swansea or Warwick, all of which have just built or are planning to build new bus stations we in Reading are to have our passengers disembark in the middle of town, onto busy pavements full of shoppers and other pedestrians, and then have to find their own way several hundred metres to the rail station.

Our Labour and Tory councillors apparently believe that bus stations are not the modern way of travelling, they have consistently voted down our ideas for any sort of bus station in amongst the new station redevelopment or the Station Hill development opposite the station. Given that Reading Station is also the hub of our local bus service this is a very strange approach to take. For all their support for Reading Buses, this town’s other two major parties have let down the people of Reading and condemned bus passengers to a very second rate service.

Coalition and Tuition Fees

The last week or two has seen tuition fees making all the headlines. Let us be clear on this issue, Lib Dems opposed them when Labour introduced them and we continue to oppose them. The explanation for the decision to raise tuition fees by so much is quite simple, we did not win the election. As the junior partners in a coalition we cannot expect to get all of the policies we put forward in our manifesto. In order to create a government that can deal with an economic crisis left behind by a discredited Labour administration, we have had to compromise on several key issues, including raising VAT instead of income tax, the promotion of free schools and yes, tuition fees

But we are making sure that we have a say in every decision and that our values play an important role in government. And just look at what we have already achieved:

  • Raising the starting threshold for income tax which will take 900,000 low earning people out of the tax bracket from 1 April.
  • A £2.5bn pupil premium targeted at children in greatest need
  • A big programme of constitutional reform including a referendum on fairer votes

These are real achievements that we can be proud of. They would not be in the government’s programme if the Lib Dems were not partners. And as the coalition continues people will see what a positive force we are in government. The Coalition Agreement setting out the plans for the next five years can be seen in full at: http://www.libdems.org.uk/coalition_agreement.aspx

The fact that we are in a coalition does mean that some of our policies, on which we fought an election, are on hold is a consequence of the election results which no party won outright. The same is true for our coalition partners, they have not got all their manifesto pledges written into the Coalition Agreement.

Tilehurst 2 Vodafone 0

Fantastic news yesterday. The council has rejected Vodafone’s planning application for a new 15 metre high mast in Lower Elmstone Drive. Local opposition to this eysore has been huge and once again Vodafone have been sent packing.

Well done to everyone who helped us campaign for this rejection. Thank you to the many residents who wrote in with comments, to the 272 signatories on our petition, to the volunteers who helped organis the petition and who went round knocking on doors, to those who delivered leaflets letting people know of Vodafone’s plan. It has all been a splendid success.

Thank you and well done again.

Vodafone Mast Update 4

The petition was handed in to the Council’s Planning Dept on Tuesday 19 October.

We are still hopeful that this planning application will be rejected by the Council, mainly on the grounds that it will stick out like a sore thumb.

The council needs to inform Vodafone of any decision by 10 November otherwise the application will be deemed to be approved (this is how the ‘Prior Approval’ mechanism works for new infrastructure projects).

Fingers crossed.

Vodafone Mast Update

We have now collected 272 signatures on our petition against the mast so well done to our helpers and many thanks to all of you in Tilehurst that have signed. That represents the vast bulk of homes that are close to the proposed site in Lower Elmstone Drive. I will hand the petition in to the council tomorrow (Monday) and it will leave the planning officers in no doubt as to what residents of Tilehurst think of this monstrous 15 metre high mast.

Vodafone Mast – the Campaign Continues

This afternoon was spent (with several other volunteers) knocking on doors collecting signatures on a petition against the proposed Vodafone mast in Lower Elmstone Drive. Over 200 residents from the area around the site have signed already. My thanks to all the signatories and to the volunteers.

I have just sent in my comments on Vodafone’s propsal to the Planning Dept at Reading BC. They are set out below.

Reference  10/01787/TEL    Vodafone Mast in Lower Elmstone Drive

Having read through Vodafone’s submission and supporting statement I am dismayed by their lack of attention to detail and their contradictory statements. It shows a very amateurish approach to a very serious planning application that could blight this part of Tilehurst for many years to come. I sincerely hope that this planning application is refused. My objections are set out below.

The Supplementary Information Sheet clearly shows that the mast height will be 15 metres as per the site diagrams which also show the tree line to be 10.5 metres. The Supporting Statement says that the trees behind the site ‘would act as a screening for the proposal.’ Well yes, from one side this may be true but from the other three sides the mast will stick out like a sore thumb as indeed it will from further up the hill behind the trees where houses in Prince William Drive will have a fine view of a 15 metre high mast protruding over the tree line. Not even Vodafone can hide a 15 metre mast in Tilehurst.

Apparently Vodafone think that a 15 metre high mast will blend into the context of the street scene more than other sites in the area. There are very few places where a 15 metre tall mast will ’blend into the street scene’ anywhere in Tilehurst.

On Page 5 of the Supporting Statement I really object to Vodafone’s deceit and contempt for the Council when they state that ‘the proposed installation would be similar in design and close in height (13.8 metres) to existing street furniture (street lamps are 8 metres high).’ Their own diagrams show the mast at 15 metres high and the existing street light at 6 metres high. Do Vodafone expect that we will simply accept this fiddling of the figures to minimise the impact of the mast? This is deceitful and Vodafone should be told in no uncertain terms that such wilful inaccuracies in their statements are not what we expect from a large well-known company with the resources that it has at its disposal. The spin they have used to justify their belief that the installation would not stick out as an eyesore for miles around is simply not acceptable.

On Page 7 we learn that ‘the proposal installation would be 13.8 metres in height to the base of the antennas. The top 2.1 metres would extend above the base of the structure.’ Even by my poor standard of mathematics that indicates a mast height of 15.9 meters, nearly a meter more than their plans show. In other words the structure will be nearly 16 metres tall and well above the existing tree line which is 10.5 metres and nearly 10 metres taller than the street light with which it is supposed to ‘blend’.

It is my belief that the Current application from Vodafone contains too many inaccuracies for it to be considered and they would do well in future to decide whether the mast is 13.8 metres, 15 metres or 15.9 metres tall before sending in their application.

I also object to the use of the public footpath which will be blocked by the proposed cabinet (1.898 x 0.798 x 1.648 metres) for no good reason other than a very large company such as Vodafone apparently cannot afford to pay to have their mast erected on the private land adjoining the footpath.

More importantly I believe that a 15 or even 16 metre high mast is inappropriate for the site in Lower Elmstone Drive. It cannot ‘blend’ into the existing street scene and Vodafone are simply lying through their teeth by suggesting otherwise. This is a monstrosity that nobody wants outside their window (and for the houses in Fern Glen in particular it will be very close to their windows). It is the key to deciding this application once Vodafone have settled on the exact height of the mast. This area of Tilehurst is wholly residential and having talked with a large number of local residents, the vast majority agree that it will be an unwelcome eyesore.

Vodafone Submits Planning Application

Well, they did not hang around too long waiting for their consultation process to complete.  Having received their original letter in the post on 4 September,  it appears that Vodafone sent in their Planning Application to RBC on 25 September so I suspect that their consultation was prcisely what we expected, a sham all along which was done to improve their public relations.

Vodafone’s application is being handled as a Prior Approval case where planning permission is assumed to have been granted unless RBC raise objections and follow a strict timetable. The council have precisely 56 days from the date they received the application to the point where their decision is received by Vodafone. Planning Officers have already said that they wish to make a decision on the proposed mast by 10 November in order to make sure that this timetable is adhered to but comments will need to be in well before this.

So, off we go again, the gloves are off. Together with local residents I  will be organising a petition objecting to this monstrous 15 metre high mast that will have such an overbearing visual impact on the whole area arouind the proposed site. Please do contact me if you can help organise the petition and any other actions that also publicise the campaign.

Details of Vodafone’s application are now on Reading BC’s website at:

http://planning.reading.gov.uk/publicaccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=L973YPMS03O00

The case reference number is 10/01787/TELE and as well as signing our petition you are free to send in your own comments to RBC (remember to quote the ref number). In order to make sure that RBC comply with the statutary timetable officers have asked for comments to be sent in by Tuesday 19 October.

Return of the Jedi – Vodafone is back in Lwr Elmstone Drive

Well, having been forced to withdraw their previous planning application for a telephone mast in Lower Elmstone Drive in April 2009, Vodafone are back with a new proposal. This time they want to site the mast over the road on the opposite side of Lower Elmstone Drive where ther are no traffic issues as there were on the previous site on the corner of Elmstone Drive. The new mast is 15 metres high, even taller than the original proposal, and slightly further away from houses. It will still represent a huge eyesore that is most definitely not wanted in Tilehurst.

I will keep you updated on the campaign as it unfolds. A plan of the site is shown here      Site Plan                               Site Plan 3

You can send any comments you have on the plan to Vodafone’s agent: robert.baker@monoconsultants.com