We need to improve our public transport
My first impressions of Wokingham as a new resident are very positive, I am however disappointed by the poor public transportation.
Driving everywhere when congestion is clearly a major problem is frustrating.
The buses that are available don’t provide good connection to local facilities such as the library and swimming pool, and there is no financial incentive to use them given that the cost of a short trip from the edge of town to the centre can be the equivalent to a whole day of parking.
Declaring a Climate Emergency is a bold call-to-arms, but it is a stretch to tell families to ditch the car when there are no viable alternatives available!
Let’s seize this opportunity to implement changes which will have long lasting benefits to our local community.
Catherine, Wokingham
Flyer tipping
This is an open letter to the individual who recently “flyer tipped” Ruskin Way, and presumably other areas of Woosehill and Limmerhill as the flyer was addressed to “Woosehill & Limmerhill Residents”, regarding “loud crashing and banging of metal or the continuous drone of an engine coming from the area of Foxhill”.
The flyer goes on to request that its recipients report this so-called “Industrial Noise Pollution” to an Environment Agency Incident number.
I will not dignify the flyer by repeating the number given. Apparently claims the flyer “the noise is travelling and being heard over a wide area”.
Noise has this habit of travelling through air… otherwise we wouldn’t be able to hear the warning sirens of emergency services vehicles.
If you are going to do this please at least support the apparent strong convictions of your views about this matter by providing your telephone number and/or address to enable interested parties, which you have assumed are residents of the areas concerned, and perhaps the source of the noises to contact you to discuss the matter further.
I am impartial and have absolutely no connection with or vested interest in any company from which such noises may be derived. I have lived in Ruskin Way for a number of years, I can hear the noises mentioned and I know from where they emanate but I take a very radical approach to this – I ignore the noise because basically it has not in the past and does not now affect me so perhaps the mystery individual should consider doing the same.
Or if they feel as passionately as would seem about the situation, at least make themselves know to a wider audience and not hide behind the anonymity of a flyer. One assumes as the individual has resorted to such a clandestine or covert approach to their perceived problem that they have exhausted other avenues available such as openly canvassing opinion of their immediate neighbours and perhaps those further afield, reporting the matter to the Borough Council’s Environmental Health Department and heaven forbid talking to the company from which they believe the noise is caused to emit; all of this before resorting to an anonymous shifting of responsibility from themselves to ask the wider public to report instances of noise from this source to a national government organisation.
I find the approach taken rather out of proportion with the matter it seeks to address.
Also, it would be appreciated if this anonymous individual would kindly respect the clear, concise but polite notice I have affixed to my letterbox which requests no flyers please.
Name and address supplied
Scoot sensibly
A recent Saturday, around midday.
About to exit my drive into the “service road”part of Commons Road, driving a fairly standard-size vehicle, almost 5 metres long and weighing about 1.5 tonnes, I inched forward very slowly, as usual.
Two mid-teen girls came careering along the service road from the Old Forest Road direction on an electric scooter. Passing in front of my car, they sped down to the junction with Commons Road proper, straight across the road and by the time I emerged from that junction, they had gone past Emmbrook Road and were disappearing down Matthewsgreen Road towards the Emmbrook schools.
No safety equipment as far as I could tell.
In my youth I came to grief, but no lasting harm, on two-wheeled vehicles at least six times over a period of five years, mainly because of icy conditions – but I was wearing a helmet and appropriate clothing.
I wish these young ladies no harm, but if they have an accident, they could end up with severe “road rash”, possibly requiring skin grafts, or with broken bones or, even worse, life-changing injuries. If the worst comes to the worst, their parents might lose a child.
At present it’s illegal to ride electric scooters anywhere except on private land – for good reason.
Name and address supplied
Interesting reading
Last week’s letters page made interesting reading. Independent Cllr Jim Frewin’s letter “can residents walk on water” took the biscuit with the picture of a resident sitting on a bench in the middle of a lake. All that was missing was a few swans and a pond yacht. Land suitable for recreational purposes I think not. Thanks Wokingham Borough.
Clarissa Flynn’s letter covers the risk to 150-200-year-old oaks. Sadly Wokingham Borough Councils idea on tree protection is the biggest joke locally if it was not so brutally draconian. Their policy is very simple trees or hedges can just be butchered and removed even as previous examples of their butchery shows even if it’s during the bird nesting season which is actually illegal. Ask them to put a Tree Preservation Order on a tree and see what happens.
Many other examples shows that should trees and hedges even have Tree Preservation Orders (TPO’s) on them they play second fiddle to planning permission involving bricks and mortar, new roads or the councils own development plans.
Planning Permissions trumps TPO’s so very simply put they just get cut down whatever their size. It’s called progress and global emergency must not get in its way especially if there is a few bob in it at the end of the day for the council.
Another letter name and address supplied sums it up perfectly under the heading “Walk the Talk”. It mentions the council’s desire to “the continuing thriving of the Borough as justification for cutting down 50 established trees and replacing them with 25. You could not make it up.
Wokingham Borough Council’s administration has lost the plot when
it fails to recognise that ecologically
it would take 500 new trees to replace 50 mature trees just to stand still environmentally saying nothing about the loss of habitat to our drastically reducing bird numbers.
Finally the J. W. Blaney cartoon sums it up perfectly “Another act of Municipal Vandalism” says it all. He has got that so right.
Cllr Gary Cowan, Independent Borough Councillor for Arborfield and Wokingham Borough Council.
Please fix our gutters
I have lived near the bottom of Glebelands Road for six years. In all that time the gutters have not been cleaned.
It is now getting dangerous to try and cross the road as the muck and sludge is very slippery.
Lots of elderly people myself included live in this neighbourhood and I have asked the Council on several occasions to clean the gutters.
They keep giving me case numbers and I know they have inspected it.
Lots of us elderly people use trolleys and the wheels get so filthy and dirt gets carried into our homes which is not acceptable.
Today, I found an elderly gentleman trying to clear a drain cover with his walking stick. He was quite shaky doing this. I told the Council that when it is wet you could plant potatoes in the build up of leaves and soil.
Their excuse is that cars are parked there but common sense would be to put up bollards for a short time and clean the area. This applies to the top and bottom of the road.
I would clean the road myself as others in Rectory Road do but I have neither the tools or the ability to do this.
I see our Council tax is going
up so please Wokingham put this as a priority.
Name and Address supplied
Strictly going on
I greatly enjoyed participating in the ‘Strictly Charity’ Event – which you covered in The Wokingham Paper (February 27). It was a huge success.
Being a burrowing animal, I rarely attend events, but when I do, I am always asked the same two questions – ‘Who owns Station House?’, and ‘Who will take over running it, when you are no longer able to do so?
The answer to the first question is that Wokingham Borough Council owns its leaky old roof, and its crumbling old walls, but we own everything else – including some of its floors! Talk about a ‘tumbledown shack by an old railroad track’, but just like the ‘shanty’, in the old song, Station House is our ‘everything’, and is perfect for our purposes.
The answer to the second question, is that I am not a bit concerned about who will take over the running of Station House, when I am no longer able to do so. I have quite enough to do – solving the problems of today – without having to spend time, worrying, about those of tomorrow!
I am a great admirer of Sir Winston Churchill, who said, ‘The churchyards are full of people who thought that they were indispensable!’ When the time comes, our younger members, may decide to continue with it.
Alternatively, another local charity may find a use for it. Either way, it will be taken over by younger people – as everything always is, eventually.
Either way, it will continue to provide a useful service in the local community, which is the only thing that matters.
Pam Jenkinson, The Wokingham Crisis House
Dump Trump’s chicken
Your readers may be interested to see ‘Donald Trump’, and helpers dressed as chlorinated chicken, promoting their new range of foods in Broad Street, Reading this Saturday, March 7, 10am to noon.
These include chlorinated chicken legs and baby food containing arsenic and pesticides – items that many people believe could be on sale in our shops if our government bow to pressure from the USA when negotiating a trade deal with them.
Passers-by will be invited to sign cards to the Secretary of State for International Trade.
These cards ask her to oppose any US-UK trade deal that lowers our food standards, opens up the NHS and other public services to US corporations or gives more powers to corporate courts. It also asks for MPs to have a meaningful vote on future trade deals. More information can be found at TrumpInYourTrolley.com
Jackie Oversby, Coordinator, Global Justice Reading
Climate concerns
Recently crowds of people have come together to show their concern about our climate. That concern is growing as we see increasing numbers of extreme weather conditions around the world, including the appalling flooding in the UK this winter.
So your readers may be interested in a meeting, ‘The Climate Emergency – Financing the Transition to Sustainability’ which will be held at 7.30pm on Wednesday, March 11, at RISC, 35–39 London Street, Reading RG1 4PS.
If we are to meet the challenges posed by the climate emergency, massive investments are required to make the transition away from fossil fuels. Further delay will make the transition more expensive and the consequences more disastrous. Economist John Christensen, who studied environmental policymaking at the LSE, will discuss various financing mechanisms, and how fair taxation can contribute to tackling global warming.
Mariana Swann, Wokingham
Sneezing fines
I write about the panic over the Coronavirus. There is a state of panic because humanity has not yet been able to define what it is – a solution is something we may all pray for.
For logistical reasons, I would like to see anyone sneezing in public without using a handkerchief etc., fined £100 and ejected from where they are, be that a shop, bus or train!
That would help ‘clean-up’ our slovenly society, but could we enforce such a rule? Sadly with no police, no conductors, no trained security staff in supermarkets etc., what hope do we have?
That means we, and I mean residents of our area, must consider associated cause and effect issues, and I start with the vulnerable – those over 60. There is already a recommendation they do not go anywhere where there are gatherings, including stores, buses and trains, thus there is a major issue for us and the country to deal with.
Traditionally and historically, our society has come to the rescue of the needy – I especially remember 1939/40. So as an example, perhaps we need council lists of all those who live on their own and are over 60. I suggest the needs of all who qualify should be established, viz where they normally shop and what they buy/need on a weekly basis.
From that data, the shops could be asked if they would package the said goods and either deliver them or allow a trusted third party to deliver them to the named person – without entering their houses or flats. Payment will no doubt cause problems, but must not be a constraint.
Turning to others, for schools and Universities that may need lockdown, we already have a technical solution to continuing their education – that of Conference calls. Imagine if you will, a class of students being given a lecture via telephone for say half an hour, a few times per week for each subject. Far better than no contact at all!
Reg Clifton, Wokingham
Adversity to the stars
This International Women’s Day (March 8) the RAF Benevolent Fund are celebrating the female RAF trailblazers who embody the motto of the Royal Air Force – Per Ardua Ad Astra (through adversity to the stars).
These women have served our country with huge distinction and in doing so have continued the legacies of their predecessors, the WRAF and WAAF who bravely fought during the First and Second World War.
One of those trailblazers is Caroline Paige, the first transgender officer to transition openly while serving in the UK Armed Forces in 1999. Lauded as a tactical expert on battlefield helicopter operations, Caroline enjoyed a 35-year career in the RAF. She has spent the last 20 years championing diversity in the workplace and knows from her own experience, talking about these issues helps people understand themselves and the people around them.
For Kirsty Murphy, the RAF’s first and, to date, only female Red Arrows pilot, inspiring young girls watching the acrobatic team’s jaw-dropping displays was the best part of the job. During her 17-year career in the RAF, Kirsty trained as a GR4 Tornado pilot and since leaving the service has flown with the Blades Aerobatic Display Team.
As the RAF’s first female Air-Vice Marshal, Elaine West climbed to the top of her profession. She has since become a trustee for the RAF Benevolent Fund, continuing her work looking after the welfare needs of the RAF Family.
All three of these remarkable women have gone on to do remarkable things since leaving the RAF and we are proud to call them friends of the RAF Benevolent Fund, supporting our work providing assistance to serving and retired personnel and their dependants.
Air Vice-Marshal David Murray
Chief Executive, RAF Benevolent Fund
Bake for the cats
Are you a cat lover who enjoys baking? If so then Cats Protection would like your help to raise money for cats in need by hosting a Pawsome Afternoon Tea event in April.
Organising an event is easy and you can hold the event in your home, workplace or school. This year, Masterchef winner Tim Anderson and Bake Off star Kim-Joy are supporting the event by providing their own recipes to help support the cause.
Now in its fourth year, the event provides a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time with loved ones enjoying some bakes, as well as raising funds to help the many unwanted cats in our care.
To register for a free Pawsome Afternoon Tea pack and to view Tim and Kim-Joy’s recipes, please visit www.pawsometea.org
Zoe Thompson, Fundraising Mass Participation Officer, Cats Protection
Walking on water
Editorially, and on the Your Letters pages of The Wokingham Paper (February 27), reports and correspondence illustrated the reckless arrogance, ineptitude, “we know best” disregard for the opinions, views and wishes of those they are in office to represent, of local government out of control and driven by self-opinionated delusion.
From the municipal vandalism of wantonly destroying hundreds of mature trees across the borough, irresponsible private and commercial overdevelopment, avoidable flooding and spiralling levels of debt, its (WBC’s) record has become one of which not to be proud.
In 1936, King George V reputedly groaned his death bed “bugger Bognor”.
Today, in 2020, borough councillors seem to be intent on imposing his sentiments on Wokingham and its long-suffering residents.
And to close. After the council spending the best part of £8 million on the purchase and welcomed reopening of Denmark Street car park, visitors found it partially coned off and two of its ticket machines out of order.. WBC’s explanation? Lack of available spare parts. Talking of ‘spare parts’!
J W Blaney, Wokingham
