Wokingham Town Centre

 

I was not surprised by the news that Sainsburys do not wish to rent or buy a large store to the south of the town centre. I have been asking the Council for sometime to get Sainsburys to sign an Agreement or accept they did not want the site.

I see their withdrawal as a good opportunity to rethink the total scheme. I have suggested to the Council going for less retail space, providing a larger green field open space at Elms Field, and concentrating more on lifting and improving the retail heart of the town which we already have. I am happy to intervene in Whitehall  if government can assist, or if as MP I can help persuade or make contacts with those who can invest and help our town.

1 Comment

  1. alan jutson,
    May 22, 2014

    Agreed, we need another supermarket in the centre of the Town like a hole in the head.

    With the Town centre full of congestion for many periods, and short on sensible parking space the last thing we needed was more traffic congestion, like we have at Winnersh crossroads, but this time within the Town.

    Your plan sounds fine John, but your local Conservative Councillors think the exact opposite, as they have said they need income from the new development, to pay for the Town Re-development they propose.

    Councillors say they want the Town to be like Henley and Marlow, but seem to conveniently forget that both of these Towns have the River Thames as an attraction.
    Neither of theses Towns have Multi-story car parks planned, or have built, or are planning to build on green open spaces within the Towns limits either.

    In one breath they say our Town is dying, but with another they say companies are lining up to rent properties in the Town Centre.

    Meanwhile the Council have doubled the rent on the premises which are part of the old Town Hall, an increase which has made local traders quit.

    With the Lib Dems playing politics with the proposed redevelopment, and the Conservatives making themselves look absolute fools at the last Public meeting, we seem to be short of rather a lot of common sense and logic.

    I am now informed that the northern relief ring road cannot connect to the A329M because
    the slip roads would be too short to merge with traffic at speed.
    So the new road is going to feed onto the already crowded A329 either side of the Town.

    So I guess even more traffic lights, ever more delays and traffic problems.

    With another 20-40,000 people due to locate to the area courtesy of a certain Mr Prescotts National planning brainwave of policies past, I see real problems ahead for this area with its lack of infrastructure investment.

    We may have high speed broadband, but we certainly have low speed traffic movement, which can only get worse.

Comments are closed.