An Audi TT two-seater sports car lay wrecked across one of Wokingham’s most picturesque locations on Sunday last week, 48 hours after a three-car collision.
Now there are some initial indications that something will be done to make it safe.
The iconic point, where the car now lies abandoned, was for 100 years the symbol of the village, the focal point of the community and the location of its very recognisable landmark, the Finchampstead War Memorial.
Since the advent of the motor car, the junction has become dangerous – and for cyclists coming up the hill from Finchampstead Village and turning right towards Crowthorne, it can be terrifying because you can’t see what’s coming around the corner.
Finchampstead Parish Council (FPC) removed the cross in 2022, saying it could make the junction safer.
Additionally, it was no longer possible to hold Remembrance Sunday services there.
But a well-known figure around Finchampstead, the retired village shopkeeper, told us that the cross should be put back in its rightful home where it could “resume its warning duties and, at the same time, once again stand as the tall, proud, and iconic symbol of our village”.
One Reading Royals supporter (52) who grew up in the village remembers attending services there 45 years ago with the guides, the brownies, the choirboys, and schoolchildren with cars rushing past on all sides and hooting loudly during the singing.
She said: “With regard to the cross, yes it was distinctive, but I remember hating Remembrance Sunday standing in the bleak location and hating walking up the hill.
“I always thought it was in a strange place and being in the village is better.
“But driving, I always hated that junction and sounds like moving the cross has made it worse so a solution needs to be found.”
By 2022, the police would no longer support remembrance services, particularly in somewhere so dangerous, and so the cross needed a new home.
To the fury of many, the Parish Council used ‘Infrastructure Levy’ money from developers to move the cross down the hill to Finchampstead Memorial Park.
But the incidents have continued, and not only that – many people feel that they have become more frequent and some have pointed the finger at the Parish Council for removing the landmark, a former point of reference for motorists, from their sightline.
The Parish Council has earmarked infrastructure money (‘CIL money’) to re-model the junction but in their latest newsletter have stated that if they were “required to assume full legal and financial liability for any consequences arising from the works” this could put a significant and potentially unsustainable burden on us as a parish council.”
Therefore, FPC says that no decision has yet been made as to whether the council can accept these conditions.
Even before the three-vehicle collision on Friday, February 20, Wokingham’s Highway department had started to take action.
Lowering the speed limit, currently 40mph, would require statutory consultation, but now Adrian Betteridge, the executive councillor for active travel, transport and highways has implied strongly that he wants to go further than Finchampstead Parish Council’s plan.
A few weeks ago, Wokingham Borough Council installed cameras and speed monitoring equipment on each entrance and exit from the junction to ensure that driver behaviour is properly understood.
The council was also intending to add an additional anti-skid surface, which it is understood was initially scheduled for March 8, but has since been brought forward.
Cllr Betteridge said: “We have said publicly that we are monitoring it and there is an expectation that there will be some change.”
“I am reviewing the Parish Council’s proposal to determine whether it’s appropriate in light of recent collisions.
“The council is taking the frequent incidents at the junction seriously and will provide further information when decisions on any further steps are made.”
Meanwhile, retired village shopkeeper Ian Adnams was far from happy. He said: “I am deeply concerned to learn of yet another accident at the junction today.
“I believe that the accident rate here has increased greatly since the controversial removal of the Memorial by the Finchampstead Parish Council in August 2022, which I was personally opposed to.”
Referring to Finchampstead Parish Council, he said: “Far from improving the junction as they had promised they would, they have, in fact, made it worse.”
“It would appear now that the Wayside Cross, as the Memorial was originally designated, served its purpose well for over 100 years by ‘acting as a Waymark to indicate a difficult or dangerous spot’.
“I believe it should be put back in its rightful home where it can resume its warning duties and, at the same time, once again stand as the tall, proud, and iconic symbol of our Village.”
