Katesgrove Lib Dems

Every Little Hurts

 There has been a quite extensive false ceiling collapse at the Tesco Express in Crown Street which at the time of writing this is closed. Thankfully no one appears to have been injured.

I have asked the council to look into whether there have been any breaches of health and safety or planning rules.

Update:

1) It seems that Tesco are taking advantage of this site to keep themselves informed of developments in Katesgrove, so welcome. They have visited on the 8th, 10th, 23rd, 25th and 29th of June whilst their local lobbyists Green Issues based in South Street, have visited on the 10th, 11th, 19th, 22nd and 29th.

2) They also still cannot help letting their suppliers and contractors park on the pavement. It goes to the heart of our objections to their store in Crown Street. It is a completely unsuitable location.

Update (2):

And a car and a van parked there again tonight. Might be worth having a word with the PCSOs!

Update (3)

And bus lanes are for... Tesco delivery vehicles thank you very much.

It's a Fair Cop

We're very pleased to see Inspector Kevin Sinfield get recognition for the tremendous job he's done with the police community teams in South Reading.

Katesgrove ward is represented in four neighbourhood areas, Katesgrove, North Whitley, Redlands and Newtown so we get to see him quite a bit and know how well deserved the award is.

Driving Us Crazy

Prompted by a number of residents who have reported that because of over-subscription of permits to parking spaces in their street they are being forced to park in the next street along, I asked a question to council to see if I could get some help for residents who find themselves through no fault of ther own forced to park outside their own parking zone.

Normally it's not a problem as most people do this generally have to because they have got home late, but as they leave for work before 8am the next morning there is no inconvenience to anyone. However, traffic wardens have now started ticketing at 5am meaning that people with valid permits yet unable to park in their own street because of over-subscription are being fined for parking in empty bays in the next street down.

I tried to get the Labour council to soften their stance and be more sympathetic to those through no fault of their own caught out by the council's deliberate policy of over-subscription, but it looks like they can't help themselves. Rules is Rules. What puzzled me was the support given to Labour by the Tories for doing this. Most bizarre.

This is the list of parking zones in Katesgrove and their current subscription levels:

Street	Zone	Spaces	Permits	Subscription
HENRY STREET AREA	Y1	77	114	148%
MILMAN ROAD	H3	48	62	129%
SHERMAN ROAD AREA	UC	202	258	128%
ELGAR ROAD	H2	370	458	124%
ESSEX STREET	H1	32	37	116%
HIGHGROVE STREET	G2	98	112	114%
LINCOLN ROAD	H4	130	121	93%
MOUNT PLEASANT AREA	G3	70	64	91%
LONDON ROAD	S2	7	6	86%
BASINGSTOKE ROAD AREA	G4	23	17	74%
KATESGROVE LANE AREA	Y2	50	31	62%
GLEBE ROAD	G1	22	11	50%

Tesco Dancing

Now here's a curious thing. Gareth and I have been invited to a meeting with Tesco by Green Issues to discuss their Crown Street store.

Green Issues are a local company specialising in controversial planning applications. This is their 'mission statement':

Our mission is to support our clients in securing planning approvals for a range of developments through high quality political, communications and consultation services.

...or as the rest of us would characterise it, spin.

As far as I'm aware, the Tesco in Crown Street already has planning permission. As long as they stick to the terms and conditions of their existing planning permission, what possible purpose could they have in wanting to meet ward councillors? 

I can't think of one.

Tesco Bullies Strike Again

There was a final good reason for me to be at the Traffic Management Panel this evening - but for the agenda item that I did not expect any debate on. 

One of the parking measures agreed was an extension of the loading ban on busy Crown Street (the main A4 into Reading) seven days a week.  This has had to be introduced to stop Tesco delivery lorries (which all seem to be articulated, the biggest possible, of course) parking on this main road, often on the pavement, to unload.

Yet at the meeting cryptic warnings were given about 'issues regarding potential litigation'. 

What are these then?

(A good question: I am only a ward councillor for the area, so naturally I have been told precisely nothing)

It appears that Tesco have, predictably, been breaking all the rules about loading and unloading, be it on London Street (a major bus corridor and a Conservation Area with listed buildings and paving slabs) or Crown Street.  It appears that, because of them loading at unsociable hours, they have been served a noise abatement order (and rightly so: dragging a trolley down paved streets outside people's homes at 6am is pretty antisocial).

And, apparently, Tesco has now sent the bully boys in to threaten and intimidate the Council with legal warnings, when it's Tesco who think themselves above the law.  (Behaviour more commonly subscribed to gangsters)

I must say that I'm looking forward to hearing the formal report of this, but I can report it here as it was all said at a public meeting.  I was always baffled why Tesco chose a corner side with barely any parking and nowhere for all but the smallest vehicles to load and unload.  (As a senior Council person - who must remain anonymous - commented, they must have been incredibly poorly-advised to choose that location).

Someone has to stand up to Tesco and their corporate gangsterism.  I hope that Reading Borough Council does.  I will certainly be pressing for them to do so in the strongest possible terms.

Cloth-eared Labour strikes again on South Street

This evening I spent at the Council's Traffic Management Panel trying to get two issues resolved for Katesgrove residents, both concerning parking.  (Another interesting issue arose regarding Tesco at Crown Street - but more of that later).

One concerns the long-running saga of the yellow lines at Collis Street which residents were not consulted on and merely saw them appearing (we were never told when the consultation took place, if it did at all).  After the Council initially refused, I think I received a promise of a site visit at which Council officers and residents can discuss with us a sensible way forward.

(This was met with a hail of abuse from Labour Cllr Page who was chairing the meeting - an increasingly embittered man).

Then the matter was discussed of the tenants of 8 flats on South Street - owned by a Housing Association as part of a mixed and relatively recent development.  We had been appoached by a resident who does not own a car but needed visitors' permits so that builders could come and make essential repairs to their flat, along with some of the residents' neighbours.

This was clearly too difficult for the Council, who protested that there was no room - despite at least 20 parking bays on South Street with potential to conversion for shared residents'/short-stay use during the daytime.  I went along and spoke on residents' behalf.

The reply from the Deputy Leader of the Council (not to mention ward councillor for over 30 years for this area until ward boundary changes in 2004)?

• That there was an Important Review taking place and that there was 'no point shelling out new permits for people'; and

• That builders 'can apply for traders' permits' or park for 2 hours the other side of Sidmouth Street and cart their materials to and fro.

(Incidentally, the review did not delay the progress of a raft of parking measures that were brought forward and agreed, amended or otherwise by the Panel at the very same meeting)

It's cloth-eared attitudes and this very failure to listen that cost Cllr Page and his Labour colleagues control of the Council and will result in them losing more seats in 2010.  Tonight was as clear an example as any.  Clearly they will never learn...

Neighbourhood Action Groups

Crime and the fear of crime are important matters for residents. Effective policing has a lot to do with the quality of life of residents and it is important to feel that the police are not only listening, but acting on residents concerns.

There seems to be a little confusion about what Neighbourhood Action Groups are for. Put simply, it's for the community to tell the police what they should prioritise in their area. They are not neighbourhood watch schemes or places for immediate action from actual crime. They are rather places which allow the police to target their resources effectively to address the concerns of residents, not what someone sitting in the Thames Valley Police headquarters thinks they should be doing.

It doesn't help that Katesgrove is split across four police areas. Newtown, which is the area west of Southampton Street and North of London Road; Redlands, which is the area west of Southampton Street, south of London Road and north of Christchurch Road; North Whitley, west of Basingstoke Road and south of Christchurch Road; and Katesgrove which is everything east of Southampton Street and Basingstoke Road (with the addition of Whitley Street shops and Highgrove Street).

The Katesgrove Neighbourhood Action Group held another of its regular meetings  yesterday. For the last year the priorities have been Drugs, Car Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour. However, Katesgrove NAG is currently conducting a survey to find out if those priorities have changed.

If you'd like to get involved or just fill in the survey, the website is www.katesgrovenag.info.