Category: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

At a meeting on Monday 28th November between the Aviation Minister, John Redwood MP and Adam Afriyie MP, with representatives for Dr Lee and Michael Gove also present, John Redwood suggested the following:

1. The Minister to talk to NATs about the 2014 changes to the Compton Gate which were made without consultation, with a view to switching back to the pre 2014 pattern.
2. The Minister to encourage NATs and the industry to keep more planes away from built up areas, flying more slowly and saving fuel, so they can come in to land directly without being in a stack.
3. The Minister to encourage use of higher flight paths so planes stay higher for longer, reducing the numbers experiencing noise.
4. The Minister to support measures to promote good flying. This includes later dropping of the wheels, less acute turns and less aggressive use of power on and the flaps. All these measures save fuel as well as reducing noise.
5. The Minister to appoint someone or some organisation to take responsibility to achieve reductions in noise

I look forward to receiving a response from the Minister in due course.

I have been pressing the government for more financial assistance to create better maintained, safer and less congested roads.

The Autumn Statement has produced  more cash for these purposes. Wokingham Borough will benefit with an additional £230,000 from the Potholes Fund next year, whilst West Berkshire will receive £336,000. The Wokingham budget for highways maintenance receives £2.36 m of support, and West Berkshire £3.836m.

There are additional funds available which Councils can bid for for particular projects which bust congestion, remove pinch points, improve safety and raise the standards of maintenance.

I have received the enclosed update from Ministers:

Dear Colleague,

Re: EQUITABLE LIFE PAYMENT SCHEME

I know that the progress of the Equitable Life Payment Scheme (“the Scheme”) is of interest to colleagues, so I am writing to you today to inform you of its closure and what it has achieved.

As announced by the then Chancellor in the Summer Budget 2015, the Scheme closed to new claims on 31 December 2015. From the beginning of 2016, the Scheme began the process of winding down and completing all remaining claims. As the majority of these claims have now been paid, the Scheme has published today its final progress report, which can be found at www.gov.uk/equitable-life-payment-scheme.

The report gives an outline of the history of the Scheme, details the significant efforts that have been made to trace and pay as many policyholders as possible, and provides a distributional analysis of the payments that the Scheme has made over its four years of operation.

The report gives the final figures compiled by the Scheme, which show that, as at 31 August 2016, the Scheme had issued payments of over £1.12 billion to 932,805 policyholders. This means the Scheme has now issued payments to 90% of eligible policyholders. All the payments issued by the Scheme have been free of tax.

It should be noted that the closure of the Scheme to new claims will not affect the yearly payments made by the Scheme to With-Profits Annuitants, which will continue for the duration of those annuities. The Scheme has written individually to all With-Profits Annuitants to make them aware of this.

I hope this information is of use to you and your constituents.

Yours sincerely

Simon Kirby MP
Economic Secretary to the Treasury

 

IPSA has just published the total expenses of all MPs for 2015-16 year. The average MP that year claimed a total of £174,867 to run an office, and to cover travel and accommodation costs. The main part of the sum was spent on staff salaries.
John Redwood claimed a total of £76,487 that year, or 43.7% of the average, mainly to pay staff salaries to assist with casework and constituency support.

The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) is the statutory body for water consumers and they have a service for complaints about water supply and sewerage service. They have provided contact details should you need to make a complaint.

Further to my meeting with the Environment Agency, they have provided me with an update on flood risk management.

I have received the enclosed letter from the Minister about superfast broadband progress:

Dear Colleague

SUPERFAST BROADBAND PROGRESS

I am writing to update you on broadband delivery in your constituency. The government’s Superfast Broadband Programme has now provided coverage to over 4 million homes and businesses and figures show that superfast coverage now reaches around 91%[1] of premises nationally.

As I set out in my recent speech to the World Broadband Forum, (https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/broadband-world-forum), we recognise that there is more to be done to deliver the connectivity Britain needs and what consumers expect in this digitised age. We need the digital infrastructure that can support this: providing ubiquitous coverage so no one is left out, and with sufficient capacity to ensure data can flow at the volume, speed and reliability required to meet the demands of modern life. I look forward to working with you to make the hyper-connected Britain we all want to see.

We can all play a role by encouraging higher take up of superfast broadband in the nine out of ten homes where it is available. This enhances the case for further investment by suppliers. And for those areas covered by the Government-funded Superfast Broadband Programme, as a result of the contractual mechanisms, higher take up will result in additional funding being made available for additional investment locally. So I would urge you to encourage constituents who can do so to take up superfast broadband so that others may benefit.

Your constituency is located within the Berkshire project. The project has been allocated over £4.7m of government funding for Phase 1 and/or 2 of the Superfast Broadband Programme.

In Wokingham Constituency the BDUK scheme has made superfast broadband available to 4,147 more premises.

Average take up of superfast broadband in the BDUK Berkshire project area is 34.8%.

More broadly, the total superfast coverage – Government- and commercially-funded – in your constituency is 91.6%[2].

We estimate from the available supplier data that coverage will be around 98.4%[3] by the end of June 2017.

You and your constituents can check the availability of superfast broadband services for specific homes and businesses at http://gosuperfastchecker.culture.gov.uk/ from where you will be directed to available superfast broadband providers. If you have any concerns about discrepancies with local coverage data, you may wish to follow up with your local project team. Further information is available via the project website at http://www.superfastberkshire.org.uk/. For those who cannot currently get superfast broadband, some providers provide a demand registration service where consumers can register their interest.

You might also like to note that the Digital Economy Bill, which includes measures enabling the introduction, and review, of a broadband Universal Service Obligation is now at Committee stage in the House of Commons. This is due to conclude next week and we expect Report and Third Reading to follow shortly after. As well as introducing a broadband USO, the Bill will also enable the building of world-class digital infrastructure, empower consumers to connect, reform the way government uses data to digitally deliver public services, strengthen protections for citizens in the digital world and pave the way for improved broadband in the future.

Yours sincerely

Matt Hancock
Minister for Digital and Culture

I have been sent the following letter about the re-opening of Southfield School – 161108-southfield-school.

The Environment Agency has provided information and contacts which you may find useful.

flood-action-info-and-contacts

I have received the following letter from Highways England in reply to my letter about bridge reconstruction works at M4 Junction 10.161102-highways-england-reply