From 1 April 2012, Wokingham Borough Council will be changing waste collection and recycling. This is to encourage more recycling and send less to landfill.
Waste collection
Collections will remain weekly*
80 blue tie handle official sacks will be delivered during March to every household. Arrangements will be made for larger households (more than 4 residents) to apply for more bags. Only these official sacks will be collected.
If you use a communal bin, you will not be issued with the blue sacks, you should continue as you are.
Collections will be from the edge of your property unless you have an assisted collection
Assisted collections remain unchanged apart from the different coloured bags and will still be collected from your usual designated point
The 80L sacks are big enough to line a dustbin, please tie the bag up when collection is due.
We will not be able to empty or pull bags out of wheelie bins
*If your current collection day is going to change, you will be notified on a leafet when the the official blue bags are delivered.
Recycling
Will become weekly. It is still a mixed kerbside collection and will still be in the existing black boxes. Cardboard, paper, aerosols, plastic bottles, food and drink cans, sweet and biscuit tins can all be recycled.
Assisted recycling will change from bags to boxes, but still be collected from your usual designated point.
All residents in the Borough will be able to get rewarded for recycling. By joining the Recyclebank programme, members will be able to earn points for recycling that can be redeemed for rewards in shops and businesses across the Borough. Rewards available at launch include money off at Marks & Spencer, travel breaks from Champneys & Classic British Hotels and free mini facials from Origins Skincare. More local partners will be joining the programme in time for launch on 2nd April
Glass, tetrapak, foil, textiles, shoes and books can be recycled at local bring banks or at the tips
Old duvets, towels, blankets can be taken to most local animal rescue centres, but please check with them first
Garden waste
Extended to every household in the Borough as an opt in scheme for an annual charge of £60. A 240L wheeled bin will be delivered upon registration and payment. Details of how to register will be announced in February 2012
Paper sacks will be available to buy from various outlets for about £1 each. These are 75L, compostable and are for one off usage
Collection of green waste from wheelie bins and the paper sacks will remain fortnightly.
Assisted green waste will still be collected from your usual designated point
Green bags will not emptied. They can be kept for your own use.
There are no concessions for the green waste scheme
Compost bins are available at a discounted rate
Only households who are able to store a wheelie bin on their own property can register
February 11, 2012 | editor
Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex will be visiting Hawkedon Primary School on Wednesday, February 8 to officially open the new family and foundation centres.
Christine Weston, deputy lieutenant for the Royal County of Berkshire, will receive Her Royal Highness before she tours the school accompanied by headteacher Alan Youd and chair of governors Dave Williams.
The school has recently opened its new family centre as well as the EarleyBird and Hawkedon Foundation Centre. Earleybird is a voluntary pre-school which has been working with Hawkedon on establishing a purpose built unit since 2006 when the borough council invited the school to undertake a project to create a foundation partnership. The family centre provides a base for the breakfast and afterschool club, self-help parent groups and community meetings. The school also organises its own courses for parents.
On arriving at Hawkedon Primary School, Her Royal Highness will be greeted by local dignitaries before embarking on a tour of the school.
February 8, 2012 | editor
Staff at Wokingham Library have gathered together a collection of books that have banned around the world.
British public libraries do not censor material on moral, political, religious, racial or gender grounds and access to information is not restricted on any grounds apart from that of the law, however this is not the case everywhere in the world.
‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll was banned in the province of Huan in China for portraying animals acting on the same level as humans.
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Eric Remarque was banned in WW2 Germany for portraying German military forces in a poor light.
‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ by J.K. Rowling was banned and burned in some schools in the USA for allegedly promoting witchcraft.
‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ by George Orwell was banned in the USSR until the 1980s for its allegorical depiction for the rise and fall of socialism and Stalin’s totalitarian regime.
Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Rhymes’, which parodies classic children’s fairy tales and replaces the traditional “happy every after” endings with something a lot more gruesome regularly appears on the American Library Association’s list of banned and challenged books.
More info: www.wokingham.gov.uk/libraries-news
February 6, 2012 | editor
Wokingham Borough Council has recently implemented it’s new residents parking protocol. A new protocol was adopted after the previous policy did not consider parking capacity issues on some of the boroughs roads.
Any road can be considered for a residents’ parking permit scheme and can be applied for by residents. However, the decision to implement such a scheme is based on evidence that there is a genuine parking problem for residents that is being made worse by the parking of vehicles not associated with the residential properties within the road.
The hours of operation are based on a road by road basis, taking into account the local conditions of that road and its surroundings. Various hours of operation are used within the borough, depending upon where the permit scheme is running.
The current set of standard charges for permits is proposed to remain the same at £30, with the exception of a carers’ permit which is now waived. Currently carer permits are charged at either £5 or £10 depending on the residents parking scheme. It is proposed to waive this charge considering equality for all vulnerable members of the public.
Full details can be found at: http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/transport/parking/resident-permits/
February 1, 2012 | editor
Wokingham residents will be given the opportunity to discuss mental health issues at a public workshop on Monday February 13 from 6.30pm at the Civic Offices, Shute End.
The health overview and scrutiny committee at Wokingham Borough Council established a Mental Health Task and Finish Group last August to review the mental health service for 16-year-olds and over with common to moderate mental health and wellbeing needs. It aims to identify how easy it is for individuals to access the service for the first time in the Wokingham Borough.
As part of that review the task and finish group is organising a public workshop to listen to and discuss the concerns of members of the community who have experienced trying to access these services, over the last two years, as well as those who have used the services.
Places are limited. To register for the workshop or for more information, please contact Charles Yankiah on (0118) 974 6013.
January 30, 2012 | editor
Wokingham Borough Council’s executive is to consider the council’s membership of the Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership. It will also confirm which elected member will represent the council at meetings of the company.
The Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership is one of 24 local partnerships across the country which pulls together key players from business, local authorities, education and the voluntary sector, working together with the government to strengthen the local economy from within.
The intention is that Thames Valley Berkshire LEP will be incorporated as a Private Company Limited by Guarantee with no shareholders and each forum member having a single vote. Local government members will play a role in providing local democratic accountability and providing a route into a wide range of local services which are relevant to securing local economic growth.
The government recently announced details of a £500million Growing Places fund, available to all local enterprise partnerships across England, with an allocation of £10.65 million for Berkshire. This will give our local businesses and organisations the opportunity to make their own decisions, based on local infrastructure priorities and projects outside the planning process, such as the implementation of superfast broadband and investment in jobs both of which are LEP priorities.
January 29, 2012 | editor
Improvements to the road network around Wokingham train station could soon become a reality as Wokingham Borough Council’s decision-making executive consider a highway scheme at its meeting on January 26.
Wokingham Borough Council is working together with Network Rail and South West Trains to bring major improvements to Wokingham railway station.
A key part of these proposals is a link road between the station forecourt and the A329 Reading Road.
The link road is an essential part of the council’s long term strategic transport aspirations and another step towards the regeneration proposals for Wokingham town centre. Having the link road in place along with the new junction improvements at Wellington Road, Oxford Road, Shute End and Reading Road should help to reduce delays at Barkham Road level crossing which in turn would reduce the bottle neck of traffic that appears daily on local roads around the rail station.
Proposed plans also include a bus interchange at Wokingham train station. This would encourage greater use of public transport. Better pedestrian and cycling facilities are also planned to encourage other ways of travelling to the station.
As part of the highway link scheme there will be a need for landscaping and tree planting. The council is also negotiating additional land to provide a one way rear exit from Alderman Willey Close on to the link road to minimise the impact of the scheme on residents of Alderman Willey Close.
If agreed by the executive on January 26, a consultation on the proposals would start at the end of January and would run through to the end of March / early April. A number of drop-in sessions would take place in the town centre and interested parties would have the chance to view exhibition materials and talk to highways officers about the proposed scheme. Residents and businesses in the local area would also receive an information leaflet and consultation feedback received during this time would be included in the planning application documents.
It is planned that a planning application would be submitted in July 2012.
January 24, 2012 | editor
Carnival Pool in Wokingham is taking part in the world’s biggest Swimathon on April 27-29.
Fundraisers can help raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care and Sport Relief at Loddon Valley Leisure Centre and Carnival Pools.
The Swimathon is taking place at pools across the UK and is being promoted by British Swimming and BBC’s Big Splash and Sport Relief.
Swimmer entry is open only until April 25.
Visit http://www.swimathon.org/
Carnival Pool
Wellington Road
WOKINGHAM
RG40 2AF
Main centre reception telephone number1189770007
ewww.harpersfitness.co.uk/gyms/carnival-pool-leisure/
Loddon Valley Leisure
Rushey way
Lower Earley
READING
RG6 4GD
Main centre reception telephone number0118 9312066Websitewww.harpersfitness.co.uk
January 23, 2012 | editor
At its meeting on Thursday January 26, Wokingham Borough Council’s executive will be asked to approve a bid for £2.7 5million to the Department for Transport to reduce congestion along the A329 corridor. If the bid is successful, the money would be used to fund a range of measures from integrated transport plans for local businesses to cycling projects for secondary school pupils. This bid complements the £24.2m Reading Borough Council joint lead bid to the DfT approved by the executive in November 2011.
The introduction of ‘magic bus stops’ would allow bus users to touch their smartphone to the bus stop and receive the latest timetables information in less than a second. The scheme would be based on a system currently used in the Borough of Poole and would make use of real time information at many more stops than would otherwise be possible.
January 23, 2012 | editor
Wokingham Borough Council is writing to postal voters asking them to re-submit their signature for the forth coming elections in May.
Postal voters are required to provide personal identifiers (signature and date of birth) which they then have to reproduce when they return their postal vote. Legislation then requires all postal voters to update their signatures every five years.
Alison Wood, electoral services manager, said: “It is recognised that people’s signatures change over a period of time which is why we are about to start this refresh. Any signature that we received on or before January 31, 2007 will need to be refreshed.”
“The legislation is very specific – the first form will be sent out on January 31 and if no response is received then a reminder will go out on February 21. On March 14, any postal voters who have not provided a new signature as requested will lose their postal vote. However, residents can apply for a new postal vote at any time.”
If any resident needs help completing these forms or if they have problems writing their signature then they can call the electoral services helpline on (0118) 974 6522 or (0118) 974 6523.
January 17, 2012 | editor
