Katesgrove Lib Dems

Rat-tled Ride

Both Gareth and I visited the Reading Campaign for Racial Equality Annual General Meeting at the Civic and it was so good to meet so many people who make such a positive contribution to this town.

But the real reason for this post is I wonder if anyone else has encountered this problem...

Dodging the traffic because of the woeful cycling provision in the town, I encountered an obstacle I've not faced in all my years of cycling... as I ran over a dead rat in the gutter near the old Central Club. I'm sure it was never like this.

Parking, or how not to win friends...

One issue which is a duty for local councillors, on which they quickly learn that you lose as many friends as you win, is residents' parking.

There are a couple of schemes coming up for consultation in Katesgrove (at Alpine Street and Crossland Road) where new residents' parking schemes are needed.  There is a third which has been withdrawn, despite clear public support and for reasons we are still trying to understand.

Each year suggestions for new or altered schemes go through a cycle, starting in October.  There are a number we have asked to see come forward.  While some are relatively uncontroversial, others are not.  Warren and I spent an evening last week knocking on doors about the potential modification of one such scheme, called for by a group of householders.  We wrote a letter about this - which clearly hit a spot with some residents who rang us to say that under no circumstances should the residents' scheme be changed!  We were given a warm welcome and ended up discussing a number of issues, and I hope have got a resident back involved in Katesgrove Residents' Association after a number of years.  But it was clear that your job as a councillor is to enable residents to take part and have their say.  In this case there were three equally clear and equally strongly-held viewpoints.  Only when we've completed the knocking on doors will we have an idea which one will have "won".

Kennet Meadows saved? Not yet!

The news that Kennet Meadows have been 'saved', according to the press and the quotes of certain politicians, is a bit premature.

The meadows may have been removed from the current draft of the South East Plan, which certainly should help Katesgrove residents living close to the Kennet to sleep a little easier.  However, those who love the Meadows and their important role in stopping large parts of Reading from flooding still have a job to do.

As colleagues from the 'Save Kennet Meadow Campaign' tell me:

"The news was actually to announce the start of the consultation
period to remove the 7,500 homes from the south east regional plan,
and is out for consultation. There are 12 weeks to respond.

You can bet that the Pru and its' allies are going to vigorously
object, and therefore it is essential that as many people as possible
write to support the proposal.

You have 12 weeks to write in, by letter, to the RSS Team, Government
Office for the South East. 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey,
GU1 4GA

You can email rss@gose.gsi.gov.uk."

Time to get writing!

Local Government Strike 16/17 July

It looks certain that there is to be a strike by UNISON and UNITE members working in local government.  I've had letters from UNISON and the Local Government Association; for up to date information check out www.reading.gov.uk,

There is little dispute that local government employees have had as bad a deal as any public sector workers.  The dispute is about whether local government has the funds to make any better pay award.  Given that central Government  - which controls the bulk of council funding - has given a 3-year settlement which an optimistic might describe as 'eye-wateringly tight', the sensible answer to this is clearly 'no'.  Although UNISON claim there is money sloshing around local government, the realist knows that most of this money is not in the places that it's needed.

The solution lies with Hazel Blears and the Treasury.  After years of 'efficiency savings' and services suffering, if this dispute is going to be solved, it is unlikely that the funds can be found from within local government.

If the answer is Hazel Blears, though, it may well be a silly question.

Needle Match

One of the good things about being a councillor is the ability to get things done that directly affect the quality of our constituents' lives. Despite my ward colleague Gareth reporting on a regular basis the anti-social behaviour and drug taking that has been going on in the underground car park at Elizabeth Edgar Cottages, it's hugely dissapointing to find that a year later the problems are still ongoing.

Still there 10 July

The freehold to the cottages is held by the council but it's leased by Charterist Properties who let it to residents of some nearby flats and offices. In the last year nothing meaningful has been done to stop the drug addicts who have been using the car park as a place to party. Okay, the managing agents have put up a fence, but installed a gate to the car park a seven year old could get over solving precisely nothing.

Gareth and I visited the cottages over a week ago and were promised that the place would be cleared up in "the next few days". Obviously I'm annoyed to find that the needles are still there a week later, the gates are still not secure and infact nothing appears to have been done despite the promises.

Travellers in RG2....

A busy, busy day with various little emergencies, the phone ringing non-stop, and to cap it all a Cabinet meeting at which I was at least able to get some public assurance that there will be a level playing field for the King's Meadow Campaign in their community bid to preserve the former swimming baths in perpetuity as a working building.

But to start it all off was....

The travellers who avid readers of the Press will have read about at Cintra Avenue have now moved (via the Cradock Road trading estates) to a location just off Elgar Road South.  I had the first report last night, which was concerned rather more with what happened when you have children playing by an industrial estate than anything else.

I understand they are the same group that has been moving around (mostly South) Reading for some time.  There are not enough of them for the Council to use 'fast-track' legal powers to move them on, so it is down to the landowner, which is in this case private.  I have made contact with them and the Police.

There is something of a vicious circle here - travellers move, residents complain, landlord goes to court, eviction, moving onto another location.  Readers of www.redlandslibdems.org.uk can read plenty about what has happened at Cintra Avenue.  I'm sure some bright spark will hurl brickbats at me for saying it, but there needs to be another way.  The current situation really works for nobody.

Reading has no permanent site for gypsies and travellers at present - a Berkshire-wide consultation took place last Autumn but things have been very quiet since then.  There appears to be no formal mechanism including the Council and Police to deal with the problems that regularly arise instead.  I was shocked when hearing of this.  Professional colleagues have valuable experience in this field, and we seem to lack structures found in other parts of the country.

The question is, which is the better thing to do?  Carry on with the vicious cycle, spending increasing amounts of taxpayers' money on evictions and cleaning up?  Or discuss a sensible and, potentially, permanent solution to this problem?  Either way, the solution will not be easy.  I hope the problems at Cintra Avenue will not be replicated at Elgar Road South - and that we do not end up talking about the problem again in a few months...

Development and progress

A lot of development issues suddenly seem to have come up.  The latest is a conversion of a shop on Elgar Road into flats that I learned of via a big dent in the pavement caused by a skip being dropped, and complaints that asbestos was then being dumped into the skip without health precautions.

Having followed up on the asbestos, the Health & Safety Executive have become involved and the builder has been told in no uncertain terms how to deal with this deadly material legally.

The irony is that all of this is happening without planning permission.

Reading's not the only council to have problems staffing planning enforcement, especially in the South East, but when a ward list of enforcement cases covers some 8 pages in summary, you know that things are very, very wrong indeed...