News

A review of council tax discounts is due to be carried out soon by Wokingham Borough Council, assisted by an external organisation.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to collect all council tax due, and any relief or discount is only awarded to residents entitled to it.

There are currently nearly 16,000 residents claiming a single person discount. Rather than contacting every resident who currently claims it, Wokingham Borough Council is working with Northgate Public Services carrying out residency checks to more efficiently target those residents whose circumstances differ from those recorded; and therefore may no longer be eligible for the discount.

Any resident who thinks they may no longer be entitled to a council tax discount should contact the borough council on (0118) 974 6022 or email [email protected].

Local group Redding Moreys will be talking about contemporary Morris dancing and its origins, dispelling some myths and demonstrating some of the steps.

On August 10, 1513, the wardens of St Laurence Church, Reading recorded that they paid three old pence for ‘ale for the Morris dancers and a hoop for the giant’. This is the oldest record of Morris dancing in Reading and one of the oldest in the UK.

Redding Moreys was formed to try to recreate an early Tudor Morris team and celebrate the anniversary by dancing on the same date and in the same place as the original Morris dancers.

This was not an easy or cheap task, but they did it. It is probably the first time that such an anniversary has been celebrated in this way since indications of the music and dance steps has only recently been discovered.

Redding Moreys is a small group but they have performed on London’s South Bank and in and around the Globe Theatre and plan to perform at the York Mystery Plays in 2014.

They are always looking for new members, especially male dancers, period musicians and people interested in making early Tudor clothing using authentic methods.

The talk takes place at Wokingham Library on Thursday January 16, 6.30pm, £3 charge. To book a place please contact Wokingham Library on (0118) 978 1368.

From January 3 South East Water will be improving the water mains on Broad Street/Rose Street junction, Wokingham for approximately six weeks.

South East Water are installing a number of meters, which monitor and help us to control the water flow through our pipelines at a number of locations across the town.

To keep both the public and their contractors safe a short section of Broad Street will be closed for the first couple of weeks of this work. Traffic from Peach Street will be diverted via Denmark Street, Wellington Road and Station Road. Rose Street, via Broad Street, will still be accessible.

Thanks to funding from Wokingham Borough Council and C-Salt (Community sport and leisure trust), vulnerable young people will be able to try their hand at rugby under the expert tuition of trained coaches from Thames Valley Police and Reading Rugby Club.

The team behind the project, made up of officers from Wokingham Borough Council, the council’s leisure facilities provider C-Salt, Thames Valley Police, Reading Rugby Club and Berkshire Rugby Football Union, will be running regular rugby sessions at Rainbow Park in Winnersh, the Norreys estate in Wokingham, Shinfield Rise, the Bulmershe and Whitegates area of Woodley and Gorse Ride estate in Finchampstead.

The project also aims to recruit volunteers to help coach and mentor participants and help them gain rugby qualifications, and if they choose to, join Reading Rugby Club to develop their talent and skills. Currently 10 officers from Thames Valley Police have signed up to give their free time and help coach the players.

Following over four years of action, the owner of a barn built without permission and in a protected part of the countryside has pulled it down and been ordered to pay all the borough council’s costs.

Mr Reuben Reed, of Pinecopse, Nine Mile Ride, Finchampstead, built the barn in an area of Special Landscape and Special Character Farley Hill without planning consent. His application for retrospective permission was refused in June 2009 and he was ordered to demolish the barn at that time. Mr Reed did not demolish the barn and the borough council prosecuted him on January 12, 2012 and he was fined £3,000 (reduced to £2,000 on appeal).

Mr Reed still did not demolish the barn and the borough council applied for an injunction to secure the demolition – the injunction hearing was set for November 28, 2013. Before this hearing, Mr Reed demolished the barn, but he failed to comply with the other terms of the injunction order which the council were seeking, and refused to pay the borough council’s costs for the work involved in applying for the injunction. The council therefore proceeded with the hearing in order to resolve all outstanding issues, including seeding the land, permanent compliance and the issue of costs. Mr Reed was ordered to pay £7,750 within 14 days (which covered the council’s legal costs up to the hearing) and was also ordered to pay the council’s further costs of attending the hearing once these have been assessed.

Many comments continue to be received on the two applications. Having reviewed and considered the comments and feedback received to date the council has decided to review some aspects of the design of the proposals. In order to avoid any confusion by submitting amendments to the current applications, the council has decided to withdraw them.

The council remains committed to the regeneration process and to achieving a development of excellent design quality. It will resubmit the applications in the near future at which time further consultations will be undertaken.

Further street lights on the A329M above Coppid Beech roundabout have bben removed by Wokingham Borough Council, after tests showed there was a small risk they could collapse.

It follows the collapse of a light last month that fell between the safety barriers on this section of the A329M. The council immediately tested all of the nearby steel columns, and found five in a deteriorated state which were quickly taken down.

Initial tests on the remaining 11 columns showed them to be largely sound, but as some of the internal results were inconclusive the council carried out further ultrasonic tests.

On November 21 at Slough Magistrates Court, Edward Horne (40), a student formerly living on Blagrove Drive, Wokingham but now living on Overhill Road, Bristol, pleaded guilty to a single charge of benefit fraud.

In a case dating back to 2006, when Horne lived in the borough, he admitted in court to receiving £986.91 of housing benefit that he wasn’t entitled to. Horne had failed to inform Wokingham Borough Council that in January 2006 his circumstances had changed and subsequently failed to attend interviews to explain his actions, also refusing to pay a penalty as an alternative to court action.

After failing to appear at court in February 2007 a warrant was issued for Horne’s arrest. He later appeared in court and was given bail in August 2007, but again didn’t turn up at court and a new warrant was issued for his arrest. However, six years later Horne was finally arrested at his home in Bristol and brought back to face the charge.

Horne was sentenced by Magistrates to pay a fine of £110, reduced to £65 due to his time in custody, and was also ordered to pay the borough council £300 towards the cost of bringing the case to court.

Wokingham Borough Council is responsible for setting up the Independent Education Appeal Panel who listen to appeals against Admission Authority decisions in relation to school admissions.

The borough council currently needs more volunteers to serve on this panel.

Education appeal panels are made up of representatives, governor representatives, teachers and retired teachers. Their task is to hear the Admission Authority’s reasons for not allocating a place to a child, and the parents’ reasons for wanting their child to go to the preferred school. They then have to decide whether to allow the appeal, having considered what affects admitting extra children to a school might have on the provision of efficient education and efficient use of resources.

The likely commitment will be several days per year during office hours; training will be provided and out-of-pocket expenses for travel and car parking will be met.

If you would like to become involved, please contact Tricia Harcourt or Luciane Bowker on (0118) 974 6091/6053.

The Aspire@Wokingham Centre at Winnersh Business Park was officially opened on November 22 with a launch event attended by local businesses representatives from the education and community sectors and Wokingham Borough Council.

Opened this September at IQ Winnersh, the £735,000 centre, funded by Wokingham Borough Council and the Wokingham Secondary Schools Federation, provides a state-of-the-art learning centre, for over 16s, to not only provide training and develop skills but also generate young people’s enterprise skills via small on-site business projects.

The building has been fitted out to provide an innovative workplace feel with cutting edge technology, state of the art design, and space for drama and dance. Its facilities will also be available for community use during the evenings and weekends.

Anyone interested in finding out more about Aspire@Wokingham can contact Sarah Concannon at [email protected] or by calling 07873 449952.