At the last Council meeting, my colleague Cllr Peter Harper submitted a petition to the Council to calling for changes to the new round abouts at California Crossroads in Finchampstead. The petition, signed by 1300 residents, asks for safety improvements following concerns.
Work at the Liberal Democrat scheme began in February 2024 and opened in September last year after seven months of disruption to local residents and businesses. The result? The removal of actual physical roundabouts in favour of bizarre, coloured leaves painted on the road surface, and a lack of recognisable standard road markings. All this for £5.5 million.
Alongside the 1300 local people who signed this petition, many more have pointed out why this is so unsafe. There are no proper markings for pedestrians to cross, with white leaves used to designate ‘courtesy crossings’. Without standard markings, cars are not consistently giving priority to residents trying to get from one side of the road to the other. Instead, the Council believes the strange markings will confuse drivers into slowing down, and people then hope the motorists are bamboozled for long enough to allow them to run between cars – if you think this sounds far-fetched you should have heard the Liberal Democrat Executive Member defending the crossing on the Jeremy Vine show.
Even with the danger this represents for most people, there seems to have been a total lack of regard for people with visual disabilities because guide dogs can’t navigate it.
An independent road safety audit noted the ambiguity of priorities at the crossing meant a person could see a car slowing down and step into the road without checking to see if cars coming the other way also slowed down. The independent safety report says that during observations of the site “some motorists did not stop when a pedestrian was waiting to cross the road”. It goes on to say “this could result in the pedestrian being struck by a vehicle”.
For most people, this would simply be confirmation of the obvious, but apparently not the ruling Liberal Democrat administration. After media from across the country, including the BBC, had highlighted this mess and the danger, the Executive Member for Highways and Transport decided to say the new crossroads had “not gone unnoticed by the national press.” A curious thing to say when so much of the press coverage has highlighted residents’ safety concerns.
In addition to the current petition signed by 1,300 people, a previous petition from over 800 residents to stop the redevelopment of California Crossroads was also ignored by the Liberal Democrats. At this point, this is hardly surprising. They don’t have a great track record in hearing residents or delivering what they want. Other petitions have resulted in obfuscation or have simply been ignored altogether, including on car parking charges, development at Hall Farm, keep weekly bin collections (and the latter branded spurious!). When 2,000 residents signed a petition against the removal of public litter bins, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader called the text of a supporting motion “annoying”.
Meanwhile, after nearly 3 years in power, the Liberal Democrats have not actually delivered the walking and cycling infrastructure people want despite it being in their manifesto. In particular residents have been calling for the planned path and cycleway between Shinfield and Arborfield.
Contrast this with when the Conservatives ran the Council. In the last 3 years we were in office, we delivered a cycleway more than a kilometre long on the A329 London Road, a shared used cycleway of 2.4km linking the A327 Reading Road to the A327 Eversley Road and a shared footpath and cycleway as part of Phase 2 of the Winnersh Relief Road. We also delivered improved access to Riverside Park in Earley, and a cycle route from Dinton Pastures to Winnersh Triangle with a new crossing.
In presenting the petition on California Crossroads, local Conservatives are speaking up for residents who are demanding change. Will the Liberal Democrats now start to listen?
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is the leader of Wokingham Conservatives
