Reading East hustings, come along and ask a question

Below are the upcoming hustings in Reading East. I should be at all of them, new baby permitting, answering questions and talking about Green Party policies and making Reading fairer, healthier and more affordable.

Why not come along and ask a question?

Thursday 26th March – University of Reading /Students’ Union Reading East hustings in the Students’ Union building, Whiteknights campus starting at 7:30 PM

Wednesday 1st April - Parliamentary candidates to discuss economic inequality - the topics are likely to be: housing, the living wage, pay ratios, and tax avoidance. Quaker Meeting House - 7:30 PM

Tuesday 14^th April – Greater Reading Environmental Network environmental hustings (not necessarily Parliamentary candidates)in the Quakers meeting house starting at 7:30 PM

Wednesday 15^th April – Pakistan Community Centre and Churches Together hustings in the Pakistan Community Centre, London Road starting at 7:30 PM

Thursday, April 23rd – NUT education hustings in the old town hall, 7:30 PM

Kennetside trial holes and closures

See below for information about the works going on along some of the Kennetside including on closures.

Trial hole investigation works – Kennetside between Sidmouth Street and Kennet Mouth

I can confirm that trial hole investigation works are scheduled to be carried out on the Kennetside footpath, between the junction with Sidmouth Street and Kennet Mouth (refer to the attached drawing). The work is programmed to start on Monday 2^nd March and will take up to two weeks to complete. The work will require the footway between Sidmouth Street and the Watlington Street Bridge to be temporarily closed at three locations. Signed diversion routes will be in place during these closures.

The works are being carried out to establish the exact location of the services within the footpath and the ground conditions behind the river retaining wall.

Advanced notice boards have been erected on site and resident’s letters will be delivered. Every effort will be made to minimise the disruption during the ground investigation works.

Opportunity to find out more about tackling parking and transport problems on your road

From talking to people in the East Reading area we know many of you have parking and transport problems. We have organised a problem-solving meeting to help you tackle these problems.

Some situations can only be fixed by a bigger (more expensive and so difficult to progress) change, but others can be resolved through small improvements like double yellow lines, timed single yellow lines or residents’ parking (permit parking) funded out of existing budgets.

To help you tackle these smaller problems in your roads in East Reading we have organised a meeting for people to come along and find out more.

From 7 PM to 8 PM we will talk generally about problems, causes, solutions and how to take these forward. After this 8 PM to 8:30 PM there will be an opportunity to talk in more detail one-to-one about specific problems on your road.

When: Monday, March 9, 7-8 PM group meeting, followed by more detailed, informal discussions of problems on specific roads

Where: The Warehouse, 1A Cumberland Road, Reading, RG1 3LB

For more information contact Rob White: 07985 923 938 or rob@readinggreenparty.org.uk

Consultation on creating loading bays on the Wokingham Road

The council is currently consulting on creating two loading bays for goods vehicles on the Wokingham Road shopping/district centre near to Alfred Sutton school.

This scheme is in response to a petition from from residents led by Josh Williams (then a resident now a Green councillor) about vehicles double parking on the Wokingham Road and causing problems. The loading bays will make it easier for businesses to load and unload  without blocking the road but will mean the loss of some general parking spaces.

Following the petition the council has also tried increasing enforcement of the parking restrictions in this area, but this has made little difference, as they are hard to enforce. We have also talked to the council about introducing pay-and-display meters in this area – still with a free 30 minutes, this would make enforcement easier as it could be done in a single pass, whereas at the moment it takes two passes from a traffic warden.

You can click on the plan above for a larger version – the side road on the left of the plan is Crescent Road and the main road is Wokingham Road.

The legal consultation is now running on this. Comments should be sent in writing to the address below quoting ref: TC2850/900 by no later than 5 March 2015.

C J Brooks, Head of Legal and Democratic Services

Reading Borough Council, Civic Offices, Bridge Street, Reading, RG1 2LU

Comments can also be sent by e-mail to highway.objections@reading.gov.uk

If you require any further information please contact Jim Chen, Transport Planner, on 0118 9372198.

Please email me copies of your comments for our information: rob@readinggreenparty.org.uk