Work starts on September 9 on a new £500,000 play space at Dinton Pastures Country Park in Hurst.
The play space, scheduled to open next spring, will include giant nest towers, wigwams, monkey ropes, funnel trap nests, secret hobbit holes and giant climbing logs as well as a woodland picnic area, den-building structures and a woodland obstacle course.
However, the existing play area and picnic area will be closed to the general public from September 9 to allow Davies White Landscape Architects to carry out the works safely.
Although the existing play area will be closed, there is lots on offer for children and young people, as well as adults, at Dinton Pastures – including; sailing, kayaking, rock climbing, golf, nature trails, wildlife watching and events.
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service are looking for enthusiastic and self-motivated young people, who are ready for a new challenge, to join their Young Firefighters Programme.
Starting on Wednesday September 18 and running every Wednesday evening (during term time only) from 7pm to 9pm (until July 2014), anyone aged between 12 and 16 will have the opportunity to work as part of a team, taking part in both practical and theoretical Fire Service activities.
Wokingham Borough Council reports recycling contamination is increasing and advises recycle right, recycle more. On our kerbside scheme (black boxes) you can recycle plastic bottles (no lids), food tins and drink cans, aerosol and mixed paper and card. Do not place items inside carrier bags!
The works included along the Rose Street façade include the enclosure and replacement of the staircase to the flats, the complete removal of the projecting sections to the side of Clarks and the construction of a completely new frontage.
Further stages of the project will involve the removal and replacement of the Clarks corner frontage, the raising and replacement of the frontage above Boots, the restoration of the old building at 38 Market Place, refurbishment of the existing flats and conversion of the empty offices above Clarks to three new apartments.
This element of the scheme secured planning permission in November 2012. The building works at Peach Place corner will be completed in Summer 2014.
Superfast broadband across Berkshire has been given a boost. Following some effective lobbying, an extra £600,000 has been pledged for the county by the government’s ‘Broadband Delivery UK’ organisation. This is on topof the £1.43 million they have already agreed which has been match-funded bydistrict and parish councils.
To secure the extra money, match-funding is again required and Thames ValleyBerkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has stepped in with a contribution of £300,000. The six Berkshire unitary councils have agreed to do the same. This brings the total public sector investment to more than £4 million, which will enable the chosen private sector provider to further extend the broadband infrastructure acrossthe county.
The Superfast Berkshire Project will deliver 2Mb broadband right across Berkshire. Superfast broadband will, after this project, be available to more than 90% of thecounty by the end of 2015. Although fast broadband is already being expanded across parts of Berkshire through existing commercial providers, a number of business and domestic premises – most in rural areas – would remain without access to the same levels of service without the Superfast Berkshire project.
Details of the Superfast Berkshire project can be found at: http://www.superfastberkshire.org.uk/
Wokingham Borough Council and GLF Schools have agreed that Wheatfield Primary will now open September 2014.
While construction of the school at Winnersh Farm will be completed in time for this academic year, the low number applying for places there this September means it is not sensible to open it this autumn because it would be detrimental to the children’s education.
Those children have today (August 2) been offered provisional places at the GLF Schools’ other new academy Windmill Primary in Woosehill, where plans to open on September 9 are progressing well.
Both schools originally had a total of 70 expressions of interest from families, but the significant delay by the Department for Education in naming its preferred education provider GLF Schools has seen parents accept offers at other schools.
The council’s admissions team has co-ordinated more than 2,000 primary school places across the borough for this coming academic year 2013-14, and most of the borough’s schools are full with very little slack.
Wokingham Borough Council is warning residents to be wary after discovering council tax reduction companies are distributing letters in the Wokingham Borough offering residents potential council tax reductions.
Some residents have received letters, addressed purely to the household, stating that the company has ‘identified that their property is likely to be in the incorrect council tax band’ and offering reductions of around £300 per year as well as a lump sum from when they moved into the property, or from 1993 when council tax banding was introduced.
However, these companies charge a fee of around 30% + VAT for something that residents can investigate themselves – for free.
Although the service these companies are offering is not illegal, it is just as simple for residents to carry out the process themselves by contacting the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) on 03000 503 600 or by visiting the VOA website where full details on how to challenge council tax bands are available.
If any residents are concerned by unsolicited letters or phone calls, they should contact Wokingham Direct on (0118) 974 6000 or West Berkshire and Wokingham trading standards on (0118) 974 6400.
The first phase of Wokingham Borough Council’s multi-million pound regeneration projects starts with work to replace the building façades at the corner of Market Place and Rose Street.
The borough council has appointed Dawnus, an international building and civil engineering company, to carry out this work on its behalf. Dawnus recently built the new science block at St Crispin’s School in Wokingham. They were also a regional finalist in the constructing excellence awards in 2013 in the categories project of the year and innovation. It also has extensive experience as a ‘considerate constructor’ and works hard to engage with local communities to ensure there is minimum disruption during its building projects.
Dawnus is currently preparing the site ready for works to begin on July 29 and following on from this, the local community will start to see scaffolding erected in stages, allowing the existing frontage of the buildings at the corner of Market Place and Rose Street to be taken down and rebuilt during the coming months. The area from the concrete stairs on Rose Street round to the building next to Bush Walk will be transformed, including enclosure of the open stairs, conversion of the empty offices above Clarks to flats and the raising of the frontage above Boots to bring it into line with the rest of Market Place.
During this time, the shops in this area will remain open for business as will all of the town’s car parks. The council has agreed careful phasing of the works to ensure minimum disruption to the town throughout the refurbishment and especially around critical times such as the run up to Christmas.
A health and wellbeing plan designed by Wokingham Borough Council to make the town a healthier place to live and work has been approved by full council.
The Wokingham Borough Health and Wellbeing Strategy has been developed in partnership with local health and social care professionals and organisations, who are all members of the Wokingham Health and Wellbeing Board.
The plan will target health and wellbeing problems specific to the Wokingham Borough highlighted by local healthcare professionals and the communities they serve.
This targeted approach means these local health and social care professionals can now work together in a way never before possible and offer services tailored exactly to what is needed locally.
Wokingham Borough as a whole experiences very good health, employment and education and is ranked as one of the best places to live in the country.
People in Wokingham enjoy a long life expectancy – the borough as a local authority has the lowest rates of premature death in England – but there are parts of the community where people don’t have such a good quality of life or wellbeing.
The strategy is designed to understand these differences and target these gaps, and will be regularly updated to respond to any new ones.
A car share scheme and incentives for local employers are the latest initiatives being spearheaded by Wokingham Borough Council to help people save money and get about more easily.
The new My Journey Wokingham Car Share scheme is free to join for people living or working in the borough, while easitWOKINGHAM will help staff at local companies taking part make more sustainable travel choices.
Both initiatives are part of the borough council’s My Journey programme, funded by the Department for Transport. The aim is to empower people to develop travel habits better for them, the local economy and the environment.
My Journey Wokingham Car Share scheme is part of the national Liftshare network, which has nearly 400,000 members nationally. Nearly 157 million trips have been registered under the scheme during the past year.
