Maiden Erlegh, Crescent Road planning applications

Street email: We are writing to update you on the subject of Maiden Erlegh on Crescent Road and the associated planning applications.

Your Green councillors believe that developing a secondary school on the Crescent Road site is important in meeting the school places crisis. However it has to be done in the best way possible and in a way that minimises the impact on local residents.

A planning application for the temporary buildings has been submitted. This is so the school can be up and running by September 2015. We agree with the general approach, but currently have a number of concerns mainly around transport and parking which we are working through with council planners.

Full details of the temporary classrooms planning application: http://planning.reading.gov.uk/fastweb_PL/detail.asp?AltRef=150381&submit1=Submit&ApplicationNumber=150381&AddressPrefix=&Postcode=

The temporary classrooms planning application is due to go to the Planning Applications Committee this week on Wednesday. The report can be found here: http://beta.reading.gov.uk/media/3183/Item-10/pdf/Item101.pdf

The Permanent school application has been received by the council and can be found here. This will go to the Planning Applications Committee later in the year:

http://planning.reading.gov.uk/fastweb_PL/detail.asp?AltRef=150594&submit1=Submit&ApplicationNumber=&AddressPrefix=Crescent+Road&Postcode=

Please feel free to get in contact with your thoughts.

We don’t have emails for everyone on the road so please forward this on to anyone who you think might be interested. If you receive a forwarded email let us know if you would like to be added to the list for future updates.

Best wishes,

Rob White, Josh Williams and Jamie Whitham

PS: we produce a monthly email newsletter with more general information about what is going on in the area. You can sign up for this here: http://greenparty.org.uk/signup.html

Green Party councillors, Reading

http://reading.greenparty.org.uk

If you no longer want to receive these emails please let us know and we will remove you from the list.

Five reasons to question the value of a (tactical) Labour vote in Reading East

Our advice is to vote for what you believe in at the general election. Some people have told us though, that they are considering a tactical Labour vote. If this is you, you might want to think about these things:

1. Labour are saying only they can beat the Tories in Reading East. In 2010 they said the same but fell from second place to third place. https://electionleaflets.org/leaflets/5438/

2. Nationally Labour are NOT targeting Reading East. It is unlikely for a party to win somewhere that they are not targeting.

3. Nationally Labour are targeting Reading West (106 national targets in total, these are the seats they think are most winnable) and that is where the bulk of their resources are going. Full list of target seats here: http://labourlist.org/2013/01/labours-106-battleground-target-seats-for-2015/

4. After the 2010 general election Labour had 258 MPs. Recent polls are forecasting Labour winning around 282 seats (an increase of 24) indicating that they are not even going to win the 106 targets (the most winnable seats) let alone other constituencies such as Reading East.

5. Last time Labour finished in third place in Reading East. It is difficult to jump from third place to winning.

Our advice would be to vote for what you believe in, and you might just get it, or at least move things in that direction.

The Green Party has been working hard in Reading East to create a fairer, healthier and more affordable area. We are offering a radical progressive alternative to the business as usual of the old parties, policies that none of them offer (a living wage for all, a publicly owned NHS, massive investment in insulation and renewables). If you agree with these policies then vote for the Green Party, and why not get involved: http://reading.greenparty.org.uk/get-involved/

Kizzi urges Redlands (and Reading) to get registered by midnight Monday

Kizzi Murtagh, Green Party candidate for Redlands Ward in Reading has called on residents to waste no time in getting registered to vote (www.gov.uk/register-to-vote). The deadline is midnight on a Monday, April 20.

Campaigning alongside other Green Party activists and members, Kizzi Murtagh said, “It’s so important that you don’t lose your voice in May. So much depends on the people we elect in the local and general elections; from decisions about parking and road safety at a local level, to defending a fully public NHS, scrapping tuition fees and tackling climate change at a national level.”

Nationally, the new individual registration system has seen 2% of voters lost from the electoral roll, and across Reading this rose to 5%. But Redlands Ward in Reading East has lost an amazing three times this at 15%.

Kizzi has commented on this, stating that, “we've been out knocking on doors all year and found large numbers of houses with no registered voters at all. In some roads in Old Redlands up to half of the people living there aren’t registered. What state does that leave our local democracy in?”

The deadline to register to vote is April 20th, it is simple to do and only takes two minutes online at:

www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

The only information you need, beyond basic contact details, is your national insurance number. If you're unable to make to the polling station on the 7th of May, you can also apply for a postal or proxy vote. Details of how to register for proxy or postal votes are available from the following link:

www.gov.uk/voting-in-the-uk

If you think you’re registered but haven’t received a polling card, you should call the council’s election hotline on: 0118 937 3717

Take Kizzi's advice, “Don't lose your right to vote! It doesn't matter who you intend to vote for, it’s important to just get registered, otherwise who decides the outcome of the local and general elections? Not you. Don’t leave a decision as important as that to someone else.”

Old Redlands residents' parking zone

Kizzi Murtagh and the Green Party have been doing a fair amount of doorknocking in the Redlands area recently and listening to people about their day-to-day problems. One thing that has come up time and time again is parking – there is now a petition for an Old Redlands zone.

We organised a small but perfectly formed meeting on parking a little while ago and at the meeting one of the Redland councillors mentioned that they were again considering a larger residents’ parking scheme in the “Old Redlands” area – terraced housing, no off-road parking, big parking problems.

Happy to support this resident-led petition to galvanise support for a consultation on residents’ parking in the Old Redlands area, but the council definitely needs to think about where this zone stops very carefully.

In neighbouring Park Ward residents’ parking has just gone in on College and Culver roads, will shortly be going in on St Bartholomew’s Road and is under consideration in Hamilton Road, Eastern Avenue and the Grange Avenue area.

Each of these road by road schemes will create problems at the edges. Is it time for an East Reading mega zone? What do people think?

Green Party Deputy Leader AMELIA WOMACK Comes To Town To Discuss Housing Crisis – THIS THURSDAY!!

The report, entitled “Everyone Knows We Have a Housing Crisis: Let’s Do Something About It” focuses on the action needed urgently to ensure that we have enough affordable housing to meet the needs of all.

Keith is introducing his report at a series of speaker meetings across the South East, visiting Reading this Thursday 9th April.

At the Reading meeting, Keith will be joined on the platform by Ian Caren (Launchpad), Clare Welton (Fuel Poverty Action), Martin Wicks (Defend Council Housing) and our very own national Deputy Leader Amelia Womack (seehttps://www.greenparty.org.uk/people/deputy-leader-amelia-womack.html).

All members and supporters are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting in order to discuss the impact of the housing crisis in the South East and to show the strength of local support for our national Deputy Leader and regional MEP! (Honourable exceptions, of course, to those who will be canvassing at this time.)

The meeting will take place at 6.30pm on Thursday 9th April at The Salvation Army hall on Anstey Road, Reading (RG1 7JR).

There is car parking nearby at the NCP car park in the Broad St Mall (http://www.ncp.co.uk/find-a-car-park/car-parks/reading-broad-street-mall). Parking costs £3.50 for the entire evening after 6.00pm.

PLEASE sign-up to attend the meeting here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/everyone-knows-we-have-a-housing-crisis-lets-do-something-about-it-tickets-16106169988. (Note: the meeting is free and no tickets are required but signing up helps greatly with planning and organising the event).

” focuses on the action needed urgently to ensure that we have enough affordable housing to meet the needs of all.

Keith is introducing his report at a series of speaker meetings across the South East, visiting Reading this Thursday 9th April.

At the Reading meeting, Keith will be joined on the platform by Ian Caren (Launchpad), Clare Welton (Fuel Poverty Action), Martin Wicks (Defend Council Housing) and our very own national Deputy Leader Amelia Womack (seehttps://www.greenparty.org.uk/people/deputy-leader-amelia-womack.html).

All members and supporters are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting in order to discuss the impact of the housing crisis in the South East and to show the strength of local support for our national Deputy Leader and regional MEP! (Honourable exceptions, of course, to those who will be canvassing at this time.)

The meeting will take place at 6.30pm on Thursday 9th April at The Salvation Army hall on Anstey Road, Reading (RG1 7JR).

There is car parking nearby at the NCP car park in the Broad St Mall (http://www.ncp.co.uk/find-a-car-park/car-parks/reading-broad-street-mall). Parking costs £3.50 for the entire evening after 6.00pm.

PLEASE sign-up to attend the meeting here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/everyone-knows-we-have-a-housing-crisis-lets-do-something-about-it-tickets-16106169988. (Note: the meeting is free and no tickets are required but signing up helps greatly with planning and organising the event). .

Crescent Road closure

Just sent out an email to people on Crescent Road about an upcoming closure.

“…closure of Crescent Road outside No. 113 on 21st – 22nd April 2015. The order has been requested on behalf of Thames Water to carry out repairs to a leaking water main. During the works/closure a signed diversion route will be in place via Eastern Avenue, Whiteknights Road and Hamilton Road. Residents will be notified by Thames Water via a letter drop in due course.”

For more information, please contact Luke at the Council: 0118 937 2293

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Palmer Park Heritage lighting and LED heads

We have been reporting problems with some of the faulty lighting in Palmer Park for a while now. They have recently changed some of the heads. See below for a message from Green councillor Josh Williams on this:

"Anyone concerned that the new LED lights aren't exactly a good fit for their heritage bases in Palmer Park - we've had confirmation from the council that these are only temporary. The original lanterns had reached the end of their life and had to be replaced. The new 'heritage' LED lanterns are on a long lead time, and so the council has used the standard LED lights from stock, but these will be replaced with something much more fitting in the next three months."