News

Wokingham town centre planning application accessible

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Following submission of the Wokingham Town Centre regeneration planning application, the formal consultation on the proposals is now underway – and the borough council has moved to make sure everyone has a chance to take part.

Views expressed as part of this consultation will form part of the consideration of the planning committee when it meets to look at the application and, as with all major planning applications, the town centre plans are available to study and comment upon online and at the council’s Shute End offices in Wokingham. Also key documents are now available to view at Wokingham Library in Denmark Street and Wokingham Town Hall in Market Place. The extra opportunity to view these plans follows a suggestion by the Wokingham Society and reflects the scale and importance of the applications. In addition the consultation period has been extended until Friday January 3, 2014.

To take part in the consultation online, people should visit the planning section and type in the applications’ reference numbers F/2013/2283 for Market Place/Peach Street and Rose Street (Peach Place) and F/2013/2284 for the land between Wellington Road and Shute End (Elms Field and the Paddocks Car Park). Comments can be emailed to the borough council at [email protected].

December 6, 2013 |

Wokingham Christmas anti-drink driving campaign

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Wokingham Borough Council will be holding two anti-drink drive events, at Wokingham Market Place on Wednesday December 4, 2013 from 10am to 3pm and Woodley Precinct on Wednesday December 11, 2013 from 11am to 3pm, to raise awareness of the gamble that drivers take when drink driving and the penalties they risk depending on the choices they make.

This year, the council’s campaign highlights risks of driving under the influence of alcohol this Christmas, with a gambling concept to grab the attention of young drivers, particularly young men aged between 17 and 29-years-old. The campaign focuses on the possible consequences of their actions when they make the decision to consume alcohol over the legal limit.

The council’s road safety team, along with a road safety constable, will be handing out freebies, providing advice and information. There will also be drink drive themed quizzes, non-alcoholic cocktails and beer goggles* demonstrations to find out if the public really knows the facts about the effects of alcohol and the consequences of a drink driving conviction.

November 30, 2013 |

Wokingham Borough Council remove street lights on the A329M over Coppid Beech roundabout

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Street lights at risk of collapse on the A329M above Coppid Beech roundabout are being removed by Wokingham Borough Council.

A street light recently collapsed and fell between the safety barriers on this section of A329M. And as a result, the council tested all the steel columns on this section and found five in a deteriorated state and at risk of collapsing. The dangerous elements of the five columns were removed immediately to protect driver’s safety.

Whilst initial tests have been carried out and the remaining columns appear to be visually sound, the council wanted to explore their state further and is awaiting data from an ultrasonic test, which is due in the next few days.

Residents can contact the council to report any faults relating to street lighting by calling Wokingham Direct on (0118) 974 6000.

November 30, 2013 |

Wokingham sports and recreational space strategy

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Wokingham Borough Council’s decision-making executive approved a strategy on November 28 aimed at ensuring there are plenty of parks, play areas, sports pitches, allotments, leisure centres, places for people to walk their dogs and enjoy fresh air in the Wokingham Borough.

The council’s Open Space, Sports and Recreation Strategy has been developed to ensure the borough secures the right types of green and recreational space and was completed after a six-week formal consultation. Following the consultation a number of minor changes were made to the draft strategy, covering:

Access for all to new children’s play facilities
Inclusion of an outline strategy for cemetery facilities
The role of town and parish councils
Acknowledgement of the growth and consequent infrastructure needs of Woodley

The strategy mainly focusses on the areas of the borough that are expanding with the new homes coming over the next few years; these are the four Strategic Development Locations (SDLs) as well as Woodley where new homes will also be built. The strategy clarifies what level of new sports and recreational facilities will be required as the SDLs are developed.

This will include:

48 hectares of parks and gardens (the equivalent of about 70 football pitches)
Six hectares of play areas and other facilities for children and young people
40 hectares of outdoor sports facilities
12.5 hectares of allotments

November 30, 2013 |

Wokingham town centre regeneration update

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Wokingham Borough Council have published the third edition of Wokingham Town Centre Regeneration Update, with information about the planning applications for the wider regeneration scheme including Elms and Peach Place including where you can view the applications as well as how to comment on them.

There are also details about benefits you as well as an update on the Peach Place refurbishment works.

November 30, 2013 |

Wokingham planning applications submitted for Elms Field and Peach Place

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Wokingham Borough Council’s chief executive Andy Couldrick and executive member for regeneration Cllr Alistair Corrie officially submitted the ten box applications at the council’s Shute End offices on Friday November 15.

This is an important phase in these pioneering £95million plans to create a healthy retail and leisure rich town centre which will flourish, and give the borough’s current and new residents the facilities they need.

The submission of the applications also marks the start of statutory public consultation so that people can see the proposals in detail and submit their comments for consideration by the planning committee.

The applications include a new foodstore, hotel, new retail units, 157 homes and a new and improved town park at Elms Field as well as a redeveloped Peach Place plaza.

To take part in the consultation, people should click onto the planning section and type in the applications’ reference numbers F/2013/2283 for Market Place/Peach Street and Rose Street (Peach Place) and F/2013/2284 for the land between Wellington Road and Shute End (Elms Field and the Paddocks Car Park).

November 28, 2013 |

Wokingham school pupils vist Leander Club

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School pupils from across the Wokingham visited the Leander Club in Remenham on Nov 8.

Some 80 pupils from four schools had been invited to the world-leading performance centre of excellence for a special event organised by the club and Wokingham Borough Council.

They visited the boathouse, the physio and crew rooms, had a go in the Leander gym and viewed the club’s honours board which lists its 112 Olympic and Paralympic medallists.

They also studied the memory wall papered with newspaper cuttings from London 2012, where Leander athletes won three gold medals, three silvers and six bronze.

Other guests on the night included council officers representing sports and health, local ward member Cllr John Halsall, and Wokingham Borough Mayor Cllr UllaKarin Clark.

November 19, 2013 |

Wokingham Loddon Viaduct works rescheduled

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Improvement works on the A329M Loddon Viaduct have now been rescheduled to take place during the school holidays next summer, and not early next year as originally planned.

Following the problems faced by motorists and impact on the surrounding highways network and residents during the preparatory works last month, Wokingham Borough Council has rethought the schedule for this major project.

The school summer holiday has been chosen because roads are quieter. It will also give the borough council additional time to review and fine tune traffic management to minimise disruption as much as possible while the work is being carried out.

This £1.6million scheme is very complex and unavoidable. Work will replace the bridge’s noisy joints, install new permanent concrete safety barriers, improve drainage and signs, and give the dual carriageway a low noise road surface.

November 18, 2013 |

Wokingham Safe Drive Stay Alive 2013

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1,200 students from secondary schools in the Wokingham Borough will be learning about the consequences of road collisions at the Safe Drive Stay Alive event in November.

More than 18,000 young people from schools and colleges across the Thames Valley will hear an emotive and hard-hitting presentation about the harrowing consequences of being involved in a road collision. Since the initiative began in 2006, more than 6,000 Wokingham Borough students have attended the event which is aimed at new or pre-drivers to educate them about the importance of being safe on the road.

Speaking at this year’s event will be a young woman left with permanent scars and life changing injuries as the result of a collision. She will be joined by a young man who lost both of his legs in a fire which engulfed his car following a crash. Thames Valley’s emergency services, including the police, ambulance and fire service, will also be speaking about what it’s like dealing with road incidents where young drivers are seriously injured or killed, which could have been avoided.

Last year some 785 people aged between 16 and 19 were injured on Berkshire roads.

Safe Drive Stay Alive is run by Thames Valley Police, Fire and Rescue Services, South Central Ambulance NHS Trust, hospital accident and emergency staff and road safety officers from councils across the region.

More info: http://www.safedrive.org.uk/

November 18, 2013 |

Wokingham Borough Recycling

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Over the past year, kerbside recycling rates in the Wokingham Borough have increased by 24 per cent, reports Wokingham Borough Council.

Every week, black recycling boxes are collected from properties across the Wokingham Borough and there is no limit to the amount of recyclable material residents can put out each week. Under the scheme plastic bottles (no lids), food tins and drink cans, aerosols and mixed paper and card are collected from black boxes and taken to Smallmead Recycling Centre in Reading where it’s sorted before being made into new products such as newspapers, milk bottles and fleeces.

However, according to last analysis, 12 per cent of what residents put in their black boxes is not recyclable. One of the biggest problems is plastic bags; latest figures suggest that 7.9 per cent of materials collected for recycling are contained within plastic bags. This causes a problem in sorting costs; everything that is placed inside a plastic bag will go straight to household waste rather than being recycled, even though over half the material found within plastic bags is recyclable material.

If residents find they are using plastic bags because there isn’t enough room in their black boxes, they can request an additional black box; which are available free of charge by contacting Wokingham Direct on (0118) 974 6000 or [email protected].

November 10, 2013 |