A big thank you to the vaccination hub team
I would like myself, to give a big thank you to all those who are staffing the Wokingham Covid19 vaccination hub at the Bradbury Centre in Wokingham, the hub for both Wokingham
Medical Centre and Woosehill Surgery patients.
I had my first vaccine on Friday, March 5, and was immediately put at ease and as someone in addition to my chronic respiratory and other medical conditions including fibromyalgia, I have anxiety as well.
But I felt completely comfortable by the care of the nurses and volunteers there. At all stages it was explained what would happen and where I needed to go as well.
So thank you, your care and dedication to the herculean task of vaccinating so many people in the community is noted and appreciated.
Am albeit a very gradual cautious step, now one step closer to being able to see my Dad in person, all being well, later in the year, I’ve not seen him since December 2019 and we are both looking forward to the day we can hug again.
This last 12 months have been extremely tough for so many people myself included, physically and emotionally, but the vaccinations are a further light at the end of the long tunnel.
Ian Hydon, Wokingham
Supporting Sandmartins
The planning application submitted by Sandmartins Golf Club would have a positive impact on our local area and we are very much in support of it.
Extending the range of functions that the business can offer to include a restaurant and wedding venue not only ensures the viability of this local business, but it also provides new employment opportunities in our community.
Sandmartins Golf Club is very much a part of our local community, and demonstrated this when working with the community to stop the threat of the nearby Gladmans development.
We are once again asking that Sandmartins work with the community and the Council to
help widen the public rights of way around the golf course making them more accessible, including to cyclists.
We have a climate emergency that requires us to reduce the number of car journeys we take which means more walking, cycling and public transport.
Finchampstead Road is not safe for cyclists, so opening up the opportunity for more sustainable forms of travel by widening the existing public rights of way around the golf course would have a huge benefit to our community.
We very much hope that Sandmartins Golf Club will commit to meet with us in the near future to explore a constructive way this can be achieved.
Cllr Sarah Kerr – Liberal Democrat Member for Evendons
Cllr Charles Margetts – Conservative Member for Finchampstead North
Cllr Adrian Mather – Liberal Democrat Member for Evendons
Cllr Daniel Sargeant – Conservative Member for Finchampstead North
Keep your distance
I have to write in disgust at our general population of Wokingham.
Why, oh why are people still being allowed to mix freely, and in particular, in Peach Place?
I understood this was going to be monitored and warnings, along with reprimands being issued by police.
People are drinking coffee, meeting up for long chats etc, all without masks and certainly no social distancing.
These people, by the way, are not just young folk who seem to believe they are totally immune, but people in the 40s upwards, who really should know better.
Just because some of us have had the first dose of the vaccine does not mean we are now all safe.
These meetings should be stopped, otherwise we will be back to square one.
No one is above being attacked by Covid-19, and us innocent folk who are abiding by the rules should not have to be subjected to these inconsiderate bodies breathing germs over us.
Come on, this isn’t over yet.
Katie James,
Wokingham
A load of manure
I read with interest in the March 4 edition of Wokingham Today that compost is back on sale at re3.
I decided to book a slot to take the rubbish we had been accumulating to the tip and to purchase some compost at the same time.
Going online there was only one slot available for booking and that was at 8.30am on a Friday.
This is a difficult time for anyone who is working. I decided not to bother with the rubbish and to go to a garden centre to buy my compost.
I continued to read the newspaper and saw another article about a car battery causing a fire in a bin lorry.
While I think it is dreadful that someone should put a car battery into their general rubbish, can you please tell me how they are supposed to dispose of it when they cannot get a slot to go to the tip?
June Taplin,
Wokingham
Once Moore, the council
I was interested to read the letter by WBC Independent Councillor Gary Cowan in the March 4 edition of Wokingham Today and would totally concur with the views expressed.
Over the past few weeks several serious mistakes have been identified relating to the conduct of Wokingham Borough Council and the Leader of the Council, John Hallsall.
Questions have been raised by a number of residents of the Council and Councillors themselves at the meeting of the Standards Committee, the Audit Committee, the Overview & Scrutiny and the Council itself.
The recent Council Meeting was shambolic and my personal Supplementary question was simply ignored.
It is clear that the Leader of the Council, who claims that the ‘buck stops with him’ is simply not prepared to take any serious action to ascertain why problems have occurred and to take appropriate remedial action accordingly.
Clearly with the majority numbers his party have on most committees he believes any mistakes can simply be ignored. He claims he genuinely believes they have not broken any of the rules of the WBC Constitution.
This was clearly shown to be the case as he contacted me to try and talk me out of continuing to take them to task as he said he had stood down from the Standards Committee, but subsequently
found he did not have to, and no other infringements had been made.
He even started the conversation by saying he never wanted to be a councillor, so I therefore suggested he might like to stand down.
If these are the views and actions of the Leader of our Council then perhaps it is time for a change and with the elections looming, and he is up for re-election, you can express your vote in the ballot box.
Frank Moore, A concerned WBC resident
Appalled and outraged at council decisions
I am appalled at the outrageous decision of Cllr Halsall to refuse an inquiry into the standards and audit committees. This is unconstitutional as it convenes the rules laid down by Wokingham Borough Council and is a serious breach of the constitution.It infringes the law of natural justice.
Is he afraid of being found guilty of the failure of all aspects of the last 21 months?
By this refusal it makes all decisions made by the council nul and void.This must now be questioned and not just swept under the carpet.
Is there such a thing as democracy any more? Political party representatives are not for the people any more as their first loyalty is to the party and not to the people that voted them in.
People of Wokingham, if you want democracy back- vote for an independent candidate not a political party.
Cedric Lander, Wooodley
Better provision for walking and cycling
On March 24, Wokingham Borough Council’s planning committee is expected to review the application for the South Wokingham Distributor Road and the connecting Western Gateway roundabout.
At the committee, Liberal Democrats councillors will be making the case for better provision for walking and cycling in both these schemes and asking the council to make improvements, representing more than 200 people who have signed our petition calling for this.
Wokingham Liberal Democrats are committed to develop a network of high-quality walking and safe cycling routes to link residential areas, local businesses, shops and transport hubs.
We are pleased that there are signs of the current administration waking up to this issue.
We understand that the Council is shortly to adopt the government’s 2020 infrastructure guidance, which requires segregated routes for walking and cycling in busy areas.
We see no reason why this should not be the case on these major new developments.
Cllr Paul Fishwick, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Highways and Transport and Winnersh ward councillor
Slow in the plan
Last autumn I wrote an open letter to senior councillors, senior WBC staff and Wokingham Today highlighting my concern regarding the slowness in the progression of the local plan for Wokingham Borough, following the demise of the Grazeley proposal.
Not only did I raise concerns about how developers could use this delay to gain potential advantages, but now we discover that the next consultation phase of this revised local plan has been pushed back
until the summer, at the earliest, surprise, surprise to after the local elections.
I am particularly concerned that sites that were either excluded in the previous draft plan, may now be joined by new sites that were not even considered previously. In Charvil for example, the current development site off Park Lane only obtained planning approval on appeal, because at that time, WBC did not have a FIVE YEAR LAND SUPPLY.
In last week’s paper there was mention of a site in Hurst (Tape Lane/Lodge Road area) where a surveyor was seen working on this site.
Any delay could put further sites in jeopardy and one has to ask why?
There are other sites across the Borough that will no doubt come into play and these potentially include Hall’s Farm (in the Shinfield/Arborfield/Sindlesham area) and a part of the Southern Wokingham SDL not previouisly considered (in the Wokingham Without/South Wokingham area) where the Council has asked for Master Planning to take place.
Master Planning is where a greater in depth study is done to assess the viability of such land. I should add that the Council would not be performing Master Planning unless there was to be a serious consideration taken as to whether such a site could take housing. Remember WBC has already performed Master Planning on three other sites!
While our area has successfully managed to avoid the disasterous increase in housing numbers up to 1,635 properties a year, the council’s current figure of 789 homes a year, still means that Wokingham Borough will need to take nearly 16,000 homes during this period (although some have already been built). This is extremely concerning.
We in the Liberal Democrats believe that this near 800 homes per annum is still far too high for our area.
Back in 2017 I suggested that a figure nearer to 600 homes a year should be the maximum we could
take. I was, at that time, severely chastised by a previous Leader of the Council for suggesting such a low figure.
The Council has declared a Climate Emergency.
I would like to know how we are to achieve our ambitions of Carbon neutrality, or even more, with such a number of homes being proposed for our area?
Yes we do need homes, but ones that are needed by and affordable to our community. The process at the moment is too much stacked in favour of the developers.
At some point something will have to give.
My biggest concern is that the nature and character of our area will be destroyed and the very reason why so many of us moved here will have been lost for ever.
Cllr Lindsay Ferris, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Wokingham Borough Council and member for Twyford
What next?
I feel the pay offer to nurses comes top as the greatest political misjudgment of all time! Pay them 10%.
The very people who have done all that was asked of them, and risked their health and life. I know precisely where the money should come from – I don’t believe what ‘Tony Hancock’ says.
That matter leads directly to the second concern – that of Boris’s girlfriend. Since when has anyone allowed such a person to act as if she is the Queen?
As to his begging money for the expensive redecoration of the flat, all that will lead to is corruption – the money sources will require something in return.
Given other recent awards to mates etc. how many more Lords can the Upper House hold?
Reg Clifton, Wokingham
