Category: Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues

As I drive around the constituency visiting people and looking at problems on the ground I have seen the rapid quickening of the pace of development this year. In the first quarter of 2016 118 new homes were started in the constituency. In the second quarter this leapt to 222, around four times the national average for a constituency, and way above the levels in Wokingham in 2015.

The Council is also busy trying to get the roads and facilities upgraded to handle all the extra people and vehicles. The first part of the Winnersh by pass is being dug. The Shinfield relief road and motorway crossing is almost complete. The new secondary school at Arborfield has opened for pupils this September. The new road to the north of Wokingham in Emmbrook is taking shape.

I am all too conscious of the impact these construction works have on the neighbours. Building inevitably produces dust and mud. It bring substantial heavy lorry and plant movements. It creates noise when the machinery is operating to dig, mix and fix. People living by can feel invaded by the intense activity and sounds.

The Council has powers to ameliorate and regulate the noise and disruption. As the local highways authority the Council can create routes for heavy traffic that avoid the more sensitive residential areas or divert traffic to larger roads where their impact is diluted. As the Planning authority they can lay down restricted hours for site working and control the contractor’s access to public property and to the existing highways and utility networks. As Building Regulation authority the Council can also satisfy itself about the impact any new development has on existing water, power and highway structures and supplies. I am keen that any new development takes into account the inevitable impact on flood waters, and contains within it ways of improving the area’s resilience to flash floods and general flooding.

Anyone with a worry or problem with site nuisance should get in touch with Wokingham Borough direct to see how they can help. I also take up these issues with Councillors and Council executives when people write to me about them, conscious that the powers lie with the Council to alleviate the impact on the local community.

I held a meeting recently with the Thames Valley Police Commissioner. We agreed that fraud and cybercrime are worrying areas of criminal activity that would repay more enforcement action. We also agreed that the Thames Valley still gets a relatively low settlement per capita compared to other police forces around the country, which we will continue to highlight to Ministers with a view to improving the money settlements in future years. The PCC reminded me of consultative work underway over more joint working between the fire service and police, and between specialist police forces and the main regional forces in England. If constituents have views on any of these issues I would be interested to hear.

I opened the new Bohunt School in Arborfield on Friday afternoon. It is the first new secondary school in Wokingham Borough for many years, and will grow rapidly from today’s 100 pupils as each new class joins in the next few years.
I toured the excellent school premises, visited teachers and pupils in their classrooms, and then talked to the school before cutting the ribbon at the ceremony. I wish teachers and pupils every success in forming a good ethos for their academy and making it a place for learning, enjoying and achieving.

I have been contacted about excessive water run off in the Reading Road and flood problems at Keep Hatch. I have taken these up with Wokingham Borough Council who are responding to the problems.

The EA say:

“I am writing to update you on the current rainfall that we have experienced overnight (Thursday 15 September) and that will continue into Friday.

The flooding so far has been from surface water run-off. The local authorities are leading on the response and we are offering support to our local partners and our pumps have been taken to Didcot railway station to help remove the surface water.

We have issued flood alerts across the area but are not expected to issue any flood warnings for river flooding. Our operations teams are ensuring that rivers remain clear and we continue to monitor and provide advice to our partners.

We are expecting this band of rain to pass by Friday evening and for drier weather over the weekend.

If your constituents enquire, you may wish to advise that they can sign up to free flood warnings (which are sent automatically via text, phone or email) via https://www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings or by calling Flood Line on 0845 988 1188. People can also sign up to flood alerts via the FloodAlerts Facebook App: http://www.facebook.com/FloodAlerts. ”

I met Neil Harris today he set up the Sport in Mind charity. It offers sports participation for people with mental health problems, operating across a wide range of sports. It works with Councils like Wokingham Borough and with Sport England.

I was impressed by what I learned of their work. They have assisted many people and organised many sports sessions, to take people out of their homes and help relieve their symptoms. They are keen for more people to know of their work, and happy to receive GP referrals.

Bohunt, the first new secondary school to be built in the Wokingham Borough for more than 50 years, opened its doors for the first time yesterday.

More than 100 students have joined Bohunt School Wokingham, in Arborfield. Initially they will use the existing legacy buildings, next to the new £32.5million school building being constructed on the former Arborfield Garrison site. The state-of-the-art school building will eventually cater for up to 1,200 pupils and it is due to open in September 2017.

Next Friday I will be visiting Bohunt and I very much look forward to meeting the staff and the pupils.

A number of constituents have contacted me to complain about train drivers sounding their horns on the railway line by Oakey Drive.

I took this matter up with Network Rail. I have now received the enclosed reply from Stuart Kistruck, Acting Route Managing Director for Wessex. The letter is available here.

Mr Kistruck confirms that Network Rail staff have covered the whistle boards and explained to drivers that they no longer need to sound their horns. South West Trains has also been notified of this action.

Many congratulations to the Wokingham GCSE students who have yet again achieved higher grades than last year’s, defying the national trend of falling passes.  This is the third year running that Wokingham borough students have improved their grades.

This year, 70.6 per cent of students obtained five or more A* to C grades, including English and Maths, which represents an increase of 2.8 percent on the borough’s 2015 results.

I recognise the hard work and effort that the pupils have put into their studies. Credit must also be given to teachers and school staff who have done so much to prepare their students for their exams.

This is a remarkable achievement and celebrations are indeed in order. 

 Well done!

Every Saturday a Conservative team goes door to door asking voters for their thoughts on local and national matters. In recent weeks the emphasis has shifted back from the referendum and the EU issue, to being predominantly local matters. Last Saturday when I joined local Councillors in Earley who are most assiduous in keeping in touch with their supporters, the main issues that came up were traffic and grass cutting.

Councillors assured me and voters that the new grass cutting contract is a good one with five different levels of service, depending on whether regular short cuts are needed or not. Where grass is still not getting the attention residents think it needs, please get in touch with your local Councillor as they are still tweaking the appropriate service level for each verge and green space.

Some raised the matter of Europe with me. Four expressed happiness with the result and wanted a faster timetable for exit. One said they were pleasantly surprised that the economy had held up in the weeks after June 23rd, despite the worrying forecasts. One raised concerns about relatives living abroad in another European country and wanted reassurance that the plan it to agree that no-one has to leave against their will when the UK leaves the EU.