Charges for Tilehurst Car Parks ?

The Lead Councillor for Transport has once again demonstrated how arrogant Labour politicians never actually listen to local people. Cllr Tony Page has just announced his decision to implement charging for car parks in Dunstall Close and Recreation Road. There has been no consultation with local councillors, no notice, just a decision announced. I and my colleagues, Cllrs Pete Beard and Chris Harris are incensed at this heavy handed and outrageous move.

We have told officers that, following our recent Residents Surveys, lots of residents were in favour of charging for long stay parking, more than 2-3 hours, in these car parks as they  are denying space to the people for whom the car parks were designed, the shoppers.

What the council have come up with is a decision to charge everyone who uses the car opark, even if they only park for a few minuites to use a cash machine or buy a paper. This is a nonsense and Tilehurst residents will not support it.

We are calling in this  decision for re-consideration at Cabinet where we hope reason will prevail.

Clearing Chieveley Close

Following last week’s heavy snow (over a foot in Reading), many side roads are still covered with a layer of ice and snow. Quite a few residents have not been able to get out on foot or by car for several days. The council have managed to clear the main roads and grit them and over the weekend they brought in two JCBs to clear the remaining bus routes where snow ploughs could not be used. So after a very long weekend of overtime the highways team have got Reading’s roads back to a state where at least the buses can run normally, they actually ahve done a splendid job. Except of course they are changing the bus routes and timetables tomorrow (Monday). Check the details at:

http://www.reading-buses.co.uk 

Early this morning I spotted a couple of neighbours setting off down the road with shovels. I realised what they were doing and ran out to join them clearing our road (Chieveley Close) of snow, pausing only to borrow a spade from another neighbour (my son took off with mine last Monday when he drove up to Wantage expecting the worst). Anyway, to cut a long story short, what started off with two men quickly grew into a gang of 10 -12 neighbours and in about 3 hours we had cleared the road and the two smaller closes, Enborne and Wootton. Lots of hard work, the odd cup of tea, and the satisfaction of having achieved something between us. A good community effort. It was actually quite enjoyable, if a little exhausting. At least we can all get out now.

Daisy selected for Reading West

 My colleague Cllr Daisy Benson (pictured) Daisy

was last night selected as the Lib Dem PPC for Reading West. She will be taking on both Labour and the Tories at the next general election. Daisy already has a high profile in the local media having been a councillor in Redlands Ward for 4 years, she currently chairs the Housing & Health Scrutiny Panel on the council and is the Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem Group. She has a talent for getting problems sorted for local people and has built up an enviable reputation in Redlands Ward (see for yourself at http://www.redlandslibdems.org.uk ) and on the council. All in  all I think she will make a great candidate and a splendid MP.

We are all now looking forward to a  showing our Labour and Tory opponents what it is to have a local candidate with a track record of action and a party ready to fight for a fairer Britain.

Re-arranged date for Pincents Hill Meeting

The Area Planning Committee of West Berks Council is now due to discuss the planning application for Pincents Hill at 6:30 on Wednesday 24 February at Little Heath School.

Interestingly, West Berks Council have now dropped the Pincents Hill scheme from their Local Development Framework document that the Tory Administration agreed in the summer (and which local Birch Copse councillors did not oppose). A council statement says:

As a result of public opinion and further work on the evidence to support the Core Strategy, suggestions for a major development at Pincent’s Hill, Tilehurst, have been replaced by proposals for an additional 500 homes at Tilehurst, Purley-on-Thames, Calcot, Pangbourne and Theale.

I am not entirely sure whether this is good news or not but it does suggest that local opinion is swaying the Tories on West Berks to stop supporting Blue Living’s development plans for Pincents Hill  –  and about time too !

Tilehurst Residents Surveys

I have spent time over the weekend going through the results of the latest batch of Residents’ Survey Forms from Tilehurst. There were a number of gripes but several issues were prominent among the responses (80 recieved so far and still counting):

  1. some residents wanted to return to a weekly bin collection for the grey (landfill) bins;
  2. quite a few residents thought that bus fares were too expensive;
  3. the traffic lights recently installed along The Meadway caused more problems than they solved;
  4. dog fouling was mentioned as a problem several times;
  5. speeding is clearly an issue on some of our roads in Tilehurst;
  6. morning and afternoon parking problems outside local schools;

And what have we councillors been doing about these issues ?

  1. the introduction of fortnightly collections has nearly doubled (from 20 to nearly 40% in round figures) the amount of rubbish that we now recycle as opposed to throwing into landfill . In general residents are content with fortnightly collections though there is always a danger of problems with maggots etc if the weather turns partiularly warm and we will ask council officers to plan for such a contingency.
  2. bus fares in Reading are not cheap but they become a lot cheaper if you purchase bus-about tickets or weekly tickets and even cheaper if, like me, you buy an annual season ticket. Single journeys are still expensive but the TIF bid includes money to subsidise fares in Reading in order to encourage the use of public transport. If the TIF bid is successful then we should see cheaper fares in 2011.
  3. The Meadway lights are an ongoing headache. We have tried telling officers that they serve no purpose but actually slow the flow of traffic for no good reason. They have responded by offering to rephase the lights and reduce the time allowed for traffic turning into The Meadway apart from Church End Lane which can be quite busy. I understand they are still working on the phasing. Like most of our residents, we remain sceptical about the usefulness of these lights.
  4. Dog fouling is the result of anti-social beahviour by some dog owners who think it is fine to leave dog pooh on public roads, footpaths and parksand who clearly do not care about children playing in the area or walking to school. Please let me know (ring 961 4027) if there is any mess on your streets that needs clearing up. If there is a problem with particular dog owners then call the Dog Wardens on 0800 626 540.
  5. Local action on speeding has taken a new turn with the introduction of mobile speed guns in November. This is a Lib Dem initiative and we shall see what effect they have on motorists in Tilehurst.
  6. We had an issue outside Park Lane School soon after I was elected and I got the Traffic Wardens to patrol outside the school at the relevant times. A few tickets later and the parents got the message. Moorlands is different in that parents do not park illegally but for half an hour morning and afternoon Church End Lane does become clogged. We do not have a solution other than to ask parents to drop off children at the entrance to the playing fields if posible.

My thanks to all of the residents that too the time and effort to fill out our survey forms.

Speed Guns in Tilehurst

Speed Gun in Action Picture

Well they have finally arrived and I have been out to see them in action, along with my Lib Dem colleagues from Tilehurst Ward, Cllr Chris Harris and Cllr Pete Beard. We were out in Wetswood Road, Chapel Hill and Halls Road and everywhere we went we had residents come up to congatulate us on taking action on an issue they were really concerned about.

Up till now we have had very little deterrence to make motorists think about sticking to the speed limits. Well now the Lib Dems have got the Council to provide 5 speed guns for use by local Neighbourhood Police Teams.  Whilst this is far from a complete solution to a serious problem on many of our local roads  it does give local police teams a chance to deter speeding motorists.

Several tickets have already been issued in Tilehurst.

You have been warned !!

Another Pincents Hill Update

I gather that the Planning Application for Pincents Hill is due to be discussed at West Berks Eastern Area Planning Committee which is being held at Little Heath School at 5:30pm on 16 December.

Building 750 home across the border from Tilehurst Ward will have serious effects on traffic and also on school places for Tilehurst residents who appear to be totally opposed to this planning application.

The Reading Chronicle has reported (20 November) that the discussion on the development at Pincents Hill has been postponed to allow the developers, Blue Living, more time to look at  matters raised by the Highways Agency.

Bus passengers kept away from new station

Reading station is being rebuilt.  The whole station area is being revamped. We have fantastic plans for the new station buildings. We have Mr Madjeski’s skyscapers going up over the road. We should all be celebrating the huge investments being made in our town. Unless, of course, you are a bus passenger.

In amongst the hundreds of millions of £s of funding the council has decided that we do not need any sort of bus terminus outside the station, passengers will be dropped at bus stops in nearby streets and then also have to queue up there. There will be no information desk, no teabar, no loos, no covered walkways to protect against bad weather and no easy way to find your bus stop if you are not a regular passenger. No, Reading can do without these, they might get in the way of developing Station Hill. We may have excellent buses and a good network of routes but at the hub of the network there will be no central terminus and no facilties.

The plans for bus passengers at the new station are a shambles and will not serve the town’s current passengers let alone the doubling of numbers expected after the station is rebuilt. This is no way to encourage people to make more use of the bus.

In case you missed it, Reading Boerough Council has just finished consulting on Traffic orders to close Station Hill to through traffic as the first stage in redevloping the station area.

Hasty Consultation for the Buses

Reading Buses are consulting on changes to their routes but have given people only one week to respond. This is outrageous.

Their consultation is at

http://www.reading-buses.co.uk/articles/reading-buses-needs-your-views/?PHPSESSID=6528259f93572ed490cdab575cb3b714

If my reading of the changes is correct then residents living in the far west of Tilehurst will see a major reduction in frequency of their bus services. Many services (routes 33 and the new 33a that replaces the 15) will now terminate in the Triangle rather than carry on to the Bird’s Estate and Westwood Glen.

This is clearly unwelcome at a time when we should be encouraging people to use public transport and I shall be commenting to Reading Buses.

I have written to Reading Buses asking why they have given the public just one week to respond to their consultation.

In the meantime, your comments can be sent by e-mail to:-

consultation@reading-buses.co.uk

or by post to:-

Consultation
Reading Buses
Great Knollys Street
READING
RG1 7HH

Tory Party Funding

Today’s Observer headlines a lot of what is wrong with British politics. A major political party is endebted to a rich overseas financier of dubious probity to fund its election campaign. It is not new and it belies David Cameron’s attempt to paint a new picture of the Tory Party. Michael Ashcroft is currently bankrolling the Tory campaigns in marginal seats where they presume the next general election will be won. He is paying for lots of glossy Tory leaflets to be distributerd in places like Reading West, he is paying for telephone banks to phone residents in key areas like Tilehurst. In doing so he is undermining our very democracy. No party should be beholden to a rich businessman who does not even live and pay tax in the UK.

Todays story shows that Mr Ashcroft apart from being given a peerage, and funding the  Tory campaign (his companies also provide jet flights for leading Tories), he is also being taken with them on trips abroad. So, for instance, he recently accompanied William Hague to the USA. We should all be asking why ? What other reason would there be for meeting top US Governemnt officials ? He is pushing his business interests on the back of legitimate ToryParty activities. And he can do this because he funds them.

This is no way to clean up British politics.

Michael Ashcroft should be evicted from the House of Lords and sent back to Belize where he made his fortune and where he apparently still feels ‘at home’, until and unless he feels able to pay taxes on his income like the rest of us.

So when the Tories next come canvassing in Tilehurst (and they are busy phoning residents right now, and will surely be knocking on doors very soon),  just ask about who funds the campaign and why are the Tories peddling business for rich tax exiles like Mr Ashcroft.

The Observer article is at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/01/lord-ashcroft-conservative-party  .