Park and rides will be white elephants

It is now the vogue for towns to create large animal statutes on gateway approaches.

Falkirk has the Kelpies while Ascot has the War Horse Memorial. Wokingham is now about to join the club albeit with a virtual reality twist with a white elephant disguised as a park and ride facility at Coppid Beech.

In the right context park and rides are a good thing with dedicated express bus services transporting people quickly to the centre of towns thereby reducing congestion.

What sets the Wokingham one apart is that there isn’t planned to be a dedicated express bus, instead the current all stopping services will be diverted into the car park.

Normally park and ride schemes are billed as environmentally friendly but again this one is different.

Cllr Gregor Murray is billing it as carbon neutral but it may well lead to an increase in pollution since existing frustrated bus passengers may switch to travelling by car since journey times will be significantly increased by the buses being diverted off the existing route and having to negotiate the filter lanes at the notorious traffic lights outside the Oakingham Belle.

And if, as claimed, the scheme “will have not significantly affect emission levels” if can be concluded even the council are expecting many travellers to ditch their cars in favour of buses so what is the point of it?

Maybe it’s meant to be a counterpoint to the white elephant that is the Thames Valley Park fiasco.

That park and ride facility was completed many months ago but there are no plans to open it as no buses serve the facility.

Cost is also a deterrent to using the scheme, currently a return bus fare from St Anne’s Manor to Broad Street is £2.60.

Assuming the park and ride car park is free that’s still £1.40 more expensive than a two-hour stay in the Rose Street car park.

Even a four-hour stay in the town centre only costs £2 so why would anyone be tempted to use the  more expensive park and ride?

Surely a better use could be found for £3 million of public money.

Peter Humphreys, Wokingham

Reading, not Wokingham

In answer to Cllr Rachel Burgess’s letter re the new park and ride, I want to clarify a point (Wokingham.Today, August 20). 

I thought this new park and ride was to give us an easier way to catch a bus into Reading and not to just go back into Wokingham which seems ridiculous to say the least (Sorry Cllr Gregor Murray).

The current park and ride at Winnersh is always full up and it is dangerous to access. 

As for suggesting we elderly and, yes disabled too, should use the new car park at the other end of Wokingham (Carnival Pool) this too is unacceptable.

How can you expect elderly people to walk from there or push a relative or friend in a wheelchair all the way up to the town centre is beyond belief. 

I would NEVER use that car park. Disabled parking is now non-existent in Wokingham and I believe there are many elderly people living in this town. 

I do miss the Rose Street car park so much and all we are left with is the old M&S one where the meters are impossible to understand, let alone use.

The same applies at Dinton Pastures the pay meters are just too complicated.

Not only have you to pay by card but have to go back and re-enter before leaving. Bring back the cash meters.

What a waste of money as if life was easy in these difficult times.

Name and address supplied

And finally

Circumstances dictate the cessation of my weekly contributions, for a while at least.

As I lay aside pen and paper, my gratitude goes to The Wokingham Paper and those of its readers who have supported my views or indeed disagreed with them.

Finally, my special thanks to the inmates of Shute End Towers who, all too often, have made themselves easy targets for my apparent satiric irreverence.

At the end of the day, for all our sakes, they must be wished well.

JW Blaney, Wokingham

Remember the Uighurs

There is unequivocal evidence that terror is being perpetrated by the Chinese state against the Uighurs Muslims in the Xinjiang region of northwest China.

This includes reports that concentration camps have been set up for the mass internment and ‘re-education’ of up to a million Uighurs Muslims, along with reports of torture and coercion in these camps. 

The Uighurs also face harsh religious and cultural restrictions, for example – facial hair being too long, not being allowed to fast in Ramadan, and prohibitions on speaking the Uyghur language in public spaces.

In August 2018 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination challenged the Government of the People’s Republic of China over abuses in Xinjiang.

In September 2018, during her first-ever speech in the role, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet noted the ‘deeply disturbing allegations of large-scale arbitrary detentions of Uighurs and other Muslim communities, in so-called re-education camps across Xinjiang’.

From our knowledge of history, does this sound familiar?

So, what can we do? We have written to our local MPs and the Foreign Secretary to ask them to exert pressure on the Chinese government, to give access to Human Rights and humanitarian organisations, such as the Red Cross, as well as journalists to Xinjiang region and the internment camps. I would urge everyone who cares about Human Rights to do the same.

Cllr Imogen Shephard-DuBey, Wokingham Liberal Democrats and Wokingham Liberal Democrat Borough Group

Privilege and honours

Cllr Sarah Kerr (Liberal Democrat Councillor for Evendons Ward, Wokingham Borough Council), is yet another Liberal Democrat who is part of the “Privilege Problem” and not part of the solution (Wokingham Today August 20).

When the Liberal Democrats, national and local, unilaterally and immediately stand their 89 Peers down and scrap or refuse any honours then the ordinary Pleb voter might take their Lib Dem bleatings about ‘privilege’ seriously.

The House of Lords, rotten and corrupt. The Honours system, rotten and corrupt. Privilege heaped upon privilege. Yet the Liberal Democrats continue to support these systems. So, instead of lecturing the rest of us about ‘privilege’ why isn’t Cllr Kerr and her fellow Lib Dems actively and publicly campaigning for the scrapping of the House of Lords and the Honours system altogether? Immediately.

The answer of course is that the Liberal Democrat party is so wedded to privilege that the Lib Dems are the biggest virtue signalling hypocrites in the UK.

As long as a single Lib Dem Peer is still sitting I suggest that Cllr Kerr keeps quiet about ‘privilege’.

And tell that Ed Davey bloke to get rid of and give back the ‘Sir’ permanently. While he has it it smacks of the ‘privilege’ that hypocrite Cllr Kerr keeps moaning about.

So Lib Dems, are there to be no words or deeds on this subject? I’m still waiting for an answer from you printed in Wokingham Today.

Paul Clarke, Wokingham

Taken to the cleaners

News that from Monday this week employees in Tesco Express and Metro stores are expected to undertake cleaning duties is a stark reminder that these staff are undervalued, overlooked and vulnerable to stereotypical assumptions.

Cleaning is often characterised as women’s work, and reinforces the belief that retail work is a female role. There have been no such reports of similar measures being implemented in the distribution centres.

This is a matter of health and safety and should not be seen as an opportunity to reduce costs.

The decision is particularly galling when it has been widely reported that supermarket sales have been at a record high during Coronavirus.

For years, Leigh Day has been acting on behalf of store workers, most of whom are women, who we claim are paid unfairly in comparison to their predominantly male distribution centre colleagues.

We hear first-hand from our clients, how physically and emotionally demanding retail work already is, and this is an added pressure that staff shouldn’t have to meet.

Instead of having more work piled on top of them, store workers should be given the recognition, respect and pay they deserve.

Lara Kennedy, solicitor in the Leigh Day Tesco Equal Pay team

People in Glass Houses

Cllr Gary Cowan is once again engaged in rabid criticism of the local Conservative council and the stance
of its leader John Halsall regarding proposed changes to our planning laws.

As readers of this paper will know, Cllr Cowan is a regular contributor to the letters section, however in terms of taking the time to read his letters, there is very little point as they basically all say the same thing.

Housing in all its forms is bad and it’s because of Conservative policy that they are being built.

To borrow a phrase from the good Councillor, ‘what a load of tosh.’

Firstly, there is an acute shortage of housing in this country and any government of any colour would be embarking on a policy which would see an increase in the housing stock.

Secondly, it is not the local council which has been increasing the numbers of houses to be built, this has come about because the house builders are not building quickly enough to hit the targets mandated by central government.

Hence if Cllr Cowan wishes to continue his blame game politics, it is a matter for him.

Personally, I would prefer to support Cllr Halsall in his attempts to moderate this attempt to further liberalise planning laws, as simply put, the proposals set out in the current White Paper will not increase the number of new houses being built.

Additionally, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, current plans by house builders to focus on areas like Wokingham may well be redundant.

Largely, because of the Covid crisis, information technology has finally come of age, the video conference replacing the meeting and the home replacing the office.

As a result, the knowledge worker living in Newcastle can be just as effective as the knowledge worker in the City of London.

This presents us with a huge opportunity to rebalance the economy by spreading jobs across the entire country and thus the demand for housing at the same time.

Therefore, instead of a simple relaxation of the planning laws, a much more fundamental rethink is required:

Major employers in both the public and private sector need to be incentivised to adopt a regionally distributed employment model and adapt their business processes to embrace remote working.

This will create a regionally diverse economy which benefits the whole country and fosters the development of viable communities outside of the home counties.

The house builders need to be held accountable for the delivery of housing numbers and not local authorities.

This in turn would encourage them to dispense with the archaic building practices currently used and embrace the quality prefabricated building methods employed in Europe. 

It is only by targeting a more regionally diverse employment model that we can diversify the areas where houses are built and only by holding the builders to legally binding production targets can we ensure that we build the houses that we need.

I would urge both Cllr Halsall and our MP Sir John Redwood, to take up these ideas with Government and work positively to change the course of current thinking in Westminster.

Finally I would advise the lead councillor who signed the 2010 Adopted Core Strategy Development Document to reflect on the wisdom of what was written and how it has proved to be the very engine of over development in this town.

That lead councillor is no other than Gary Cowan now throwing stones in the very glass house created by his own hand.

Andrew Waters, Wokingham

We urgently need your help

You may have seen or heard that the Government are proposing some major changes to the Planning process.

While not perfect the current system does allow some local involvement, however these proposed changes being suggested by this Conservative Government remove all, but some minor powers. This is totally unacceptable.

We are particularly concerned at the proposals to increase the number of homes being pushed onto Wokingham Borough, up from an already too high 789 homes a year to a whopping 1635 per annum, more than a doubling to an additional 26,000

properties between now and 2036. Just ask yourself ‘Where are they going to build them?’

If these proposals are not stopped, not only would we be deluged with additional housing, they are also proposing to reduce the number of social homes, instead just focusing on developer properties and your local council would not be able to do anything about it to stop them.

It is in effect a Developers Charter to concrete over almost everywhere, with one or two minor exceptions.

What is even more important is that we (as residents) only have until midnight on October 1 (yes just one month) to let the Government know your views.

Over the past week, as leader of the local Liberal Democrats on Wokingham Borough Council, we have put party politics to one side and we have been discussing with the Leader of the Council how we can put together a UNITED FRONT TO OPPOSE  these quite dreadful and dangerous changes.

There will shortly be a jointly agreed non-party political WBC A4 leaflet coming through your door imploring you to respond to these proposals.

Included in this document will be links to a parliamentary petition and a link to the Government website and Document in question where you will be able to provide your views. 

We also need you to lobby our local MP’s.

On a personal note, I have been involved with local politics for many years, this proposal is in my view the most serious threat to our way of life in Wokingham borough and throughout many other parts of the Country I have ever encountered.

Please help us stop this now.

Cllr Lindsay Ferris

Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Wokingham Borough Council and councillor for Twyford

Speaking up for my ward residents

I am writing in response to Cllr Jim Frewin’s letter in last week’s paper concerning the application for 57 flats where he mentioned a “local WBC councillor” who suggested “on match days at the local rugby club traffic will be even more chaotic”.  I am that local WBC councillor.

 Cllr Frewin also mentioned the chaotic traffic in Shinfield, Earley, Winnersh and Wokingham Town Centre. 

I actually live in Earley, so I am very aware and experience this throughout the borough.

 Again mentioning chaotic, the application site itself is just off the busy A4 in Sonning and will be adding, if approved more vehicles to an already congested road network.

 I am speaking up for and representing residents in my ward.  This is the same as Cllr Frewin in Shinfield South.  Why should this be any different?

Cllr Michael Firmager, councillor for Sonning at Wokingham Borough Council

Join the BLM protest

The shocking killing of George Floyd in the USA has started a discussion across the world about discrimination and marginalisation of Black communities.

Our issues here in the UK are different in some ways from those of the US, but we face the same central question – what can we do to eliminate racism in our society?

We are therefore very pleased to hear that a local group has planned a friendly demonstration of support for the UK’s Black Lives Matter movement in Elms Field at 3pm on Saturday.

We hope that Wokingham people from all backgrounds and from across the political spectrum will join us in this demonstration of support for our Black friends, colleagues and neighbours.

You don’t need a deep understanding of the issues and we don’t need to agree on the solutions to join us  – this is a show of goodwill and a commitment to find the answers together.

We hope that this is the start of a positive dialogue about what each one of us can do to eliminate prejudice and discrimination and to build a fairer society.

Cllr Rachel Bishop-Firth, Liberal Democrat councillor for Emmbrrok and The Wokingham Liberal Democrat Group

Earth Overshoot Day

Last Saturday was Earth Overshoot Day for 2020 – it’s estimated that by that date humanity’s consumption of ecological resources exceeded what Earth can regenerate in a year.

If everyone in the world lived as we do in the UK, Overshoot Day would be even earlier on 16th May.

Greenfield housing development
to increase the population in Wokingham both increases local consumption and reduces locally available resources — a double impact.

Government should develop positive policies to manage population size and distribution, as well as consumption and technology use, so that we and future generations can be both prosperous and sustainable.

John Booth, Earley

Moral bankrupcy

Reading the hatchet along with the  knife in the back and front job the naked chef (sorry naked Conservative leader of Wokingham  Borough Council) did on me in last weeks Wokingham Paper came as no surprise.

The Conservative DNA is if you don’t like what you hear or it does not fit into their anti-residents ideology then the trick is to ridicule them in public so well done there.

It’s very  sad when the fear of the facts leads to such a nasty vile reaction from the Conservative leader of Wokingham Borough Council.

It explains  why the Conservatives  are such a morally bankrupt party.

Roll on next May.

Cllr Gary Cowan, independent councillor for Arborfield at Wokingham Borough Council

What do you think? Send your letters to letters@wokinghampaper.co.uk

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