Red Route to tackle Wokingham Road #rdg parking problems

Green councillors have been campaigning to tackle dangerous parking problems on the Wokingham Road, near to Alfred Sutton school. The council will be consulting on introducing a Red Route later in the year. We think the best opportunity for improving road safety in the area.

Red Routes are used in London to help buses run on time. The Reading Red Route will be along the 17 bus route. It is a similar parking restriction to the current loading ban along much of this route, but easier to enforce. For example the CCTV camera car can be used to issue tickets.

At the same time as introducing the Red Route the council will also be looking at other measures to tackle problems. Green councillors would like to see pay-and-display (with a free first 30 minutes) introduced in the parking bays on Wokingham Road opposite Alfred Sutton school. This would make enforcement easier and help tackle some of the parking problems. It would also free up the bays for people using the local shops.

Let us know what you think. We will keep people updated when we have more information about the consultation.

Litter pick this weekend in East #rdg

Newtown GLOBE have organised a Reading RESCUE litter pick & tidy up on Sunday 12 March from 1 pm - 2 pm. We will be meeting at the junction of Cholmeley road & the river Kennet - everyone is welcome!

We should have equipment, but bring your own gloves and litter pick if you have them.

Apologies about the short notice, but the council are no longer supporting Reading RESCUE meaning that it is organised by volunteers and everyone is a bit stretched!

Hopefully see you at the weekend.

Best wishes
Rob White

Newtown GLOBE

Tackling parking and road safety problems in East Reading

Last night at the Traffic committee Green Party councillor Rob White argued that the Park Ward, East Reading permit parking scheme and Crescent Road road safety scheme should be fast tracked to consultation. Unfortunately other councillors on the committee wanted to keep the order suggested by Councillor Page. This means progress will be slower than it could have been.

The large Park Ward scheme, bordered by Eastern Avenue, Whiteknights Road, Church Road and Wykeham Road, is currently 4th in the queue (Battle large area scheme, Caversham large area scheme, Minster small scheme, Park large area scheme followed by the other small schemes).

This is clearly disappointing as Rob highlighted road safety issues from the police, fire service and Crescent Road schools at the meeting, such as fire engines not being able to get down Hamilton Road, but the committee voted to progress the schemes in the order that they were received.

However, when Rob met with senior transport planner Simon Beasley ahead of the meeting Simon indicated that we would be able to get going on some of the ground work for this scheme in the next month or so. Councillor Page also wanted to set up a council subcommittee to progress the scheme – although he didn’t provide any detail on this at the meeting.

Thanks to everyone who emailed the Council on this and provided information. Green Party councillors continue to share your frustration on the slow progress towards consulting on a scheme to tackle the issues you have raised with us. We will keep lobbying and working to improve road safety and tackle parking issues.

Best wishes
Rob White, Josh Williams and Brenda McGonigle

Green Party councillors, Reading

https://www.facebook.com/rdggreenparty
http://twitter.com/reading_greens