By Cllr Shirley Boyt
Cycling and recycling are two issues which have got residents (and Town Councillors) vexed this week.
Not one, but two public consultations about cycling and walking have been launched by the Borough Council and judging by reactions on local social media everyone is in favour of improved cycleways – just as long as they are not outside their houses.
The Woodley to Reading Active Travel Route is back – readers may remember this as the Woodlands Avenue, one-way proposal which originally launched earlier this year, causing uproar among Woodley Town Conservative Councillors who accused Wokingham Borough Conservative Councillors of not consulting them.
Strange really as five Woodley Town Councillors also happened to be Wokingham Borough Councillors at the time, but anyway the net result of these shenanigans was that Council officers went away and modified the plan and have removed the one-way aspect.
So, everyone is now happy?
Well, no actually.
They are now unhappy about narrowed carriageways, 20mph limits and weight limits on some roads.
And rather disingenuously, they are trying to blame the new administration of the Council for a project which was in fact set in motion under the previous regime.
If you are trying to view the plans on a phone or tablet it is almost impossible to fully understand what is planned so I have asked officers to provide enlargements of these rather complicated plans to be put on display in Woodley as soon as possible.
The second consultation is much broader and affects the whole borough. It is the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP). This is a strategy which sets out the Council’s draft cycling and walking network plans for the next 10 years, and the improvements that might be needed to make these key routes safer and more convenient to use.
Both consultations are open until Friday, August 19, and I would urge all residents to go to engage.wokingham.gov.uk to have your say.
The Council has made the decision to no longer provide plastic bags for the food recycling caddies and this has caused great consternation in some quarters, particularly from members of the previous administration who seem to have u-turned completely on their commitment to rid the Council of single-use plastics.
I have lost count of the number of times I have had to wade in on Facebook to explain that food waste isn’t composted so it doesn’t need to be in compostable bags – you can recycle food in any bag.
The food waste goes to an anaerobic digester; the bags are all removed – both the bags and food are processed to generate electricity. re3 has an excellent video which explains the process.
What this has brought home to me is just how naïve most people are about what happens to their rubbish and recycling and the Council really needs to up its game in providing information to residents if it wants to increase its recycling rate to 70% by 2030.
Perhaps we could start with costs – it costs you, the council tax payers, £120 per tonne to dispose of the blue bag waste but only £20 per tonne to recycle food waste.
Just think of all that money going into other services – it really is a no-brainer.
Cllr Shirley Boyt is a Labour councillor for Bulmershe and Whitegates ward on Wokingham Borough Council
