No member of the SOAR campaign went to the Wokingham Planning meeting with hope of more than a token vote or two against the MRT planning application.
In a remarkable display of democracy in action the Councillors of Wokingham refused to be bamboozled by the planning doublespeak surrounding the Reading led planto build a road over Kennetmouth.
Despite the assurances from the officials that building the road would result in a net increase in biodiversity, the majority of Councillors simply weren’t buying it.
The level of debate and scrutiny provided by the Wokingham Councillors was of a noticeably higher level than was witnessed in the Reading Council. The cross party rejection of the plan was a gratifying example of a group of Councillors showing real concern for the area that they represent; instead of a single party whipped into subjugation to the will Tony Page.
One councillor after another pulled the plan to pieces.
Wayne Smith (Conservative, Hurst) spoke movingly of the impact that building the MRT would have on depriving the residents of Cholmeley, Liverpool and Cumberland Roads of their access to this beautiful riverside area.
He went on to question the planners over what would happen if the project ran out of money prior to completion.
Unwittingly he brought back memories to long-term residents of the area of Reading’s famous ski jump where the IDR terminated halfway around the town.
Graham Vaughan, Wokingham’s planning manager, asserted that the council could require that the construction was either completed or removed. He failed to tell us how the same council that had run out of money would be in a position to do either of these.
Cllr Carl Doran (Labour) pointed out that whilst the harm to the area was clear in the Planning report, the assumed benefits seemed to be full of doubt.
Once built the damage would be irrevocably done.
If it subsequently proved to be of little benefit there would be no way to undo it. One of the lighter moments of the evening was provided by the Wokingham Council officer responsible for traffic.
Under questioning from Cllr Doran, he was at a loss to be able to provide the numbers of buses that would use the MRT each day. Later he asserted that at peak times up to 80 buses per hour would be taken from the London Road to use the MRT.
Unfortunately he didn’t address how the people that are currently using those buses along the London Road would be able to use them once they bypass Cemetery Junction.
Cllr Doran was able to show that his knowledge of the planned bus services was superior to the transport expert by correcting him over which buses would use the MRT and which wouldn’t.
He also asked how were the buses to be kept running, when bus services connecting Woodley to the Royal Berkshire Hospital were being lost given that Wokingham was unable to afford to subsidise them.
Another local Woodley area councillor, Andy Croy (Labour, Bulmershe and Whitegates and not part of the planning committee), challenged the legal basis for the planning application.
The plans refer to a policy adopted in 2010 that calls for a Mass Rapid Transit or High Quality Express bus service.
He pointed out that what is proposed is neither.
In other Mass Rapid Transit schemes around the world they usually refer to rail systems. A single working bus lane does not provide Mass nor Rapid Transit and a bus lane is not a bus service.
Privately, Scott Witchalls, senior partner of Peter Brett Associates, the designers of the plan for the councils, admitted that the rail station that he had previously promoted to be built at Thames Valley Park would be a far more beneficial solution but lamented that there was not the political will for it.
The focus of SOAR must now become getting the residents of Reading and Wokingham to lobby their Councillors to persuade them to stop pouring money into this ill thought out scheme.
Rather than taking the application to appeal and potentially a subsequent public enquiry, that money could be far better spent on investigating and promoting schemes that may actually make a difference to the traffic and at the same time preserving those special and increasingly rare green spaces around our urban centres.
SOAR – Save Our Ancient Riverside – is a collective of residents who live, work or use the land by the River Thames known as Kennetmouth. They have a Facebook page called Don’t Trash The Thames
