IT HAS been a long wait for Wokingham pedestrians – but most of the town centre’s paving slabs have finally been restored.
Since the start of the year residents have been waiting for repairs to be carried out to paving slabs in the Market Place that were removed for below-ground repairs.
This week repairs have been carried out.
Wokingham Market Place received a pavement upgrade during the town centre’s regeneration of 2017 and 2018.
This included the laying of new paving slabs as part of a new dropped-pavement design.
Repairs were then carried out by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) to correct cable faults below ground.
Quite large areas of paving slabs were removed in February, and replaced with temporary concrete slabs and tarmac.
At the time Wokingham Borough Council on its Traffic and Travel Facebook page assured residents that repairs were not permanent, and that the areas would be restored to their original condition.
The Market Place slabs are bespoke, and need to be specially ordered from overseas. Due to high demand, it was understood that they wouldn’t be available until later this year.
At the time residents were angry that the original slabs had not been retained by the contractors for reinstating, and that they had instead been taken away.
One Wokingham business owner had even offered to store stones but said this was refused.
However, the wait is finally over, and much of the damaged paving has now been reinstated – just in time for the REME Freedom of Wokingham Parade, when troops gathered on Saturday to be presented to a Parade Inspection Party.
During the event a 40-piece Military band, a 120 strong contingent of REME regulars, reserves, cadets and veterans exercised their Freedom of Wokingham by marching through the town, returning to Market Place for speeches, presentations and The National Anthem.
