redlandslabour.org.uk

We believe that local people know best what their neighbourhoods need.  Your Community Your Cash gives residents living in your community the power to decide how £15,000 of Decent Neighbourhood Funding should be spent on improving the appearance of the Hexham estate and improving the quality of life for people living in the neighbourhood.  This is a great opportunity to work with the council to share ideas about how to improve your local area or support a community project.

Put your idea forward

If you have an idea that you think will:

•  Reduce anti-social behaviour
•  Improve the general appearance of the estate
•  Provide activities to increase community spirit

Please contact Julie Burnett, RBC Neighbourhood Initiatives Officer, or  Carol Shepherd, Chair of Hexham Community Association, and they will help you develop your idea into a funding bid.  They can visit you at home, talk over the phone, or you can come along to the Community Centre on:

Wednesday 30th May, 10–12pm or  Wednesday 13th June, 10–12pm where we can give you more information and answer your questions about “Your Community Your Cash”.

Presenting your bid

We will ask all bidders to present their ideas to the wider community at the

Hexham Summer Fun Day on Saturday 7th July 2012 

Voting

Once all the ideas have been presented we will ask everyone to vote for the projects that could benefit your community the most.

Making the top ideas happen

We will work with bidders to turn their ideas into reality.

If you’re interested in Your Community Your Cash please contact Julie Burnett, Neighbourhood Initiatives Officer, 0118 937 2685 or email julie.burnett@reading.gov.uk

Labour giving communities real power over decisions

During Autumn 2011 a questionnaire was sent to all households in Redlands and a consultation meeting was held at St Luke’s Hall as part of the University and Hospital Area Transport Study.

The main issues residents told us about related to congestion and parking, as well as vehicle speeds and the need for more pedestrian facilities in the area.  We have also received many requests for a Residents’ Parking Scheme in individual streets across the whole area.  We are now ready to offer a range of options to residents to see if you think they will help alleviate the issues raised.

The aim of any scheme would be to maximise the availability of on-street parking for residents, allow for other reasonable parking demands for visitors to the area, and minimise displacement of parking demand from one road to another.  If a decision is taken to implement such a scheme, residents would receive their first permit free of charge.

To help get a clear understanding of your views and to develop a scheme which addresses the local issues you have raised, we would urge you to complete and return the Residents’ Parking Scheme questionnaire, which has been delivered in the last few days

If residents continue to say that they support the introduction of a Residents’ Parking Scheme, a formal consultation will follow in the summer to define how the scheme will work at an individual street level.

Councillors and officers will be available at a drop in event at:

St Luke’s Hall, Erleigh Road on

Friday 25^th May between 2pm to 7pm

to explain the proposals further and to answer any questions you may have.  The enclosed consultation materials will also be available to view at the Civic Centre and online at: http://www.reading.gov.uk/council/Consultations/2012consultations

Please note, at this stage we are consulting on whether residents want a permit scheme introduced and which areas may also be suitable for pay and display.  If a scheme is supported by residents, we will undertake further formal consultation about how it could work in individual streets.

Following the introduction of new planning legislation relating to HMOs introduced in 2010  I raised concerns expressed to me by residents about concentrations of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in Redlands.

In response to this, informal consultation, including public exhibitions and the opportunity to complete questionnaires, was carried out at the end of 2011 to seek residents’ views on the impact of houses in multiple occupation.  The results of the informal consultation, plus other evidence, led to a report being put to Cabinet in March which resolved that, for a defined area covering parts of Katesgrove, Park and Redlands Wards, permitted development rights to convert from a dwellinghouse to a small HMO be removed.

The letter copied below is part of the formal process of notifying residents of the ‘Article 4 Direction’.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Notification of Article 4 Direction for removal of permitted development rights to convert from a dwellinghouse to a small house in multiple occupation.

After informal consultation at the end of 2011 about houses in multiple occupation in Park, Redlands and Katesgrove Wards, and the gathering of other evidence, the Council’s Cabinet resolved that, for a defined area covering parts of Park, Redlands and Katesgrove Wards (see attached map) permitted development rights to convert from a dwellinghouse to a small HMO be removed.  Development that can be carried out without the need for an application for planning permission is called ‘permitted development’.  The Council can remove these ‘permitted development’ rights though a process known as an ‘Article 4 Direction’.

On 16 May 2012, a non-immediate Article 4 Direction was made for an area which includes the above property.   A formal period of notice is required in these cases, and it is intended that the Article 4 Direction will come into force on 16 May 2013, i.e. one year from the date the Direction was made.    As from that date, any conversion of a property from a dwellinghouse (C3) to a small house in multiple occupation (C4) will require a planning application to be made, about which neighbouring properties will be advised and consulted, with decisions being made either by planning officers under delegated powers or by the Planning Applications Committee, where objectors have a right of public speaking. If a planning application is not currently required to convert from C3 to C4 use, then this will continue to be the case until 16 May 2013, (unless a planning application is required for any other reason)[2].  A copy of the Notice of the Direction as published in The Reading Chronicle on Friday 18^th May is attached below.

Further information, including a copy of the Article 4 Direction, a more detailed map showing the area to which it relates, background evidence and the results of the consulation carried out at the end of 2011 can be found on the council’s website at:

www.reading.gov.uk/planninghmo

Should you wish to make a representation concerning the Direction please ensure this is made to the local planning authority between Friday 18 May 2012 and 5pm on Wed 13 June 2012.

Representations can be made in writing to:

LDF Planning Team, Planning Department

Civic Centre

Reading, RG1 7AE

Email: ldf@reading.gov.uk

Tel: 0118 937 4741   Fax: 0118 937 2435

Once the Direction has been confirmed, further notification will be sent to the properties affected.

I am delighted that the good people of Redlands gave the Labour Team such a positive thumbs-up at the local elections last week and elected Tony Jones with a very convincing majority:

Labour 1,032

Lib Dem 425
Tories 273
Green 251
Labour now has overall control of the council with 26 of the 46 seats. There are no elections next year.

Tony has hit the ground running and is already dealing with individual issues and cases.  He has campaigned for better control of HMOs, Banning Estate Agent Boards and solutions to the parking and traffic issues in the Ward.

I am really looking forward to having another Councillor for Redlands on the Council, we will work as a team and ensure that the all the diverse voices of Redlands are represented.

The first meeting of the Labour Group following the party’s success in the Borough elections has tonight re-elected Jo Lovelock as Leader and Tony Page as Deputy Leader, and kept the same Cabinet Members, although some changes have been made to some of their portfolios.

Jo Lovelock says: “With 26 out of the 46 Council seats, we have a solid mandate to push ahead with the programme on which we fought the elections, and the important thing now is to get down to work and deliver for local people.  We are keen to get on with our ‘Let’s Talk’ approach in communities across the town and making the changes that people want to see.  We know we are in tough times, but we have shown that we can stand up for local people, particularly those who are most in need of Council services, and we will be working hard to deliver what local people expect.”

The full Cabinet list is as follows:

Leader                                                                          Jo Lovelock

Deputy Leader

& Regeneration, Transport & Planning)                 Tony Page

Adult Social Care                                                      Mike Orton

Community Engagement & Service Transformation Jan Gavin

Culture & Sport                                                  Marion Livingston

Education & Children’s Services                   John Ennis

Environment & Climate Change                     Paul Gittings

Health & Wellbeing                                           Bet Tickner

Neighbourhoods & Housing                           Rachel Eden

On a personal note I am delighted and honoured to have been supported by both my Party and Group.  I am determined to continue the work we started last year to re-build the confidence of our communities by empowering them to take more control of the places they live in.  There will be even less money next year, but we are determined to provide high quality services that residents want and need, to be able to achieve this, we have to do things differently.

Update:

I have been asked to take down this ‘press release’ from Reading Labour Party by Cherwell Valley College because it is mis-leading.  I recieved the email below today:

I have been alerted to the contents of your website on www.redlandslabour.org and am writing to respectfully ask that take down this piece as it is factually incorrect and misrepresents what the College said at the event last Wednesday.
We are in the process of gaining half of the site. Our half of the site comes with all of the playing fields and we expressly said, in response to a question, that we have no intention of building on the playing fields. The playing fields are needed for the school and its sports curriculum.
I would be grateful if you could therefore remove the piece.

I am grateful for this clarification, but it is not what I heard at the meeting.  Perhaps we could ask the college to publish a map to show how the land will be divided, so we can all clearly see what is planned.  I think we also need to press for assurances that the community will still be able to access and use the playing field, if they are going to all be owned by the new Technical Academy.

When Park Ward Labour candidate Rachael Chrisp told residents round the Crescent Road area that the supporters of the new Reading Technical Academy were proposing to sell off half the Alfred Sutton playing fields to help fund the scheme, that was dismissed by Oxford and Cherwell Valley College and Rob Wilson MP accused the Labour Party of “grubbing around in the dirt for votes” (Reading Chronicle, 2 April).

But, Rachael Chrisp says, the truth will out.  At the consultation meeting on 23 April, Sally Dicketts, the Chief Executive of OCVC, admitted that the site was to be sold to a developer, contradicting what OCVC had said only three weeks ago and giving the lie to Rob Wilson MP, chief sponsor of the scheme.

“These playing fields are a precious asset for the people of East Reading,” Ms Chrisp says, “and are protected from development under Reading’s planning policies. But Michael Gove seems to believe he can flog them off regardless of local feelings, and when Reading Labour Party tells people the truth about what is being planned we get attacked by an MP who clearly doesn’t want people to know the truth. I have seen emails about this sale on which Rob Wilson is copied in and I know he knows about it, and knew about it when he made that attack.  Local people will know never to believe a word he says again.

“It goes without saying that Labour will continue to protect the Alfred Sutton playing fields, as we always have,” she adds, “and we will fight Mr Gove’s plans.”

Lead Councillor for Education John Ennis adds: “The Council has tried to work with Rob Wilson to deliver the 11-19 school which is what local people want, but all he wants to do is to use his status as an MP to attack the Labour Party, regardless of the facts of the situation. I think he should apologise publicly, to Labour and to the people of East Reading.”

Streetclub is a new initiative that has been set up to help bring back a sense of community and encourage people to join in with their neighbours.  Neighbours set themselves up in a closed, online environment and use the website to communicate with each other.  The scheme is run by B&Q (the DIY retailer) with support from Reading Borough Council.

A successful trial in Western Road in Reading means the scheme is now being rolled out across Reading and we are looking for people to kick start Streetclub in their own road. 

Neighbours will be able to:

* Network neighbour-to-neighbour (e.g. organising neighbourhood activities such as street parties or garden tidy-ups).
* Discuss local issues which matter to people. The site includes a range of interactive tools including voting facilities.
* Share, give away or sell items or services – a cross between Ebay and Freecycle with the added security of knowing the people you are dealing with.
* Use collective or community buying power to obtain bulk purchase deals (such as a number of neighbours getting together and negotiating a discount for having their gutters cleaned). 

For safety, neighbours will have to validate their identity and show that they live at the address where they register.  Information about a particular club will only be seen by its members and they will be given guidance on keeping themselves safe and secure whilst on the site. 

To find out more about being a kick starter, come along to one of the Streetclub events where you can also chat to residents from Western Road about their experience of Streetclub.

Wednesday 26 April

Three B’s Café, Reading Town Hall

1 – 3pm OR 5 – 6.30pm

If you would like to come along please email Eileen Conroy at eileen.conroy@waa.co.ukwith your contact details and your preferred time. Light refreshments will be available.

The Evening Post today published an article – ‘We must put children first’  18/04/12 in which they reported that Rob Wilson MP and Michael Gove MP had condemned the Labour Administration in Reading for ‘an outdated assault on the academies programme’ with reference to a recent resolution passed at full Council.  In fact, the resolution condemned the forced academisation of several local primary schools, against the wishes of governors, staff and parents.

We do believe that it is the school and local community who should decide on whether a school becomes an academy, and where schools have chosen that route we have continued to work with them for the benefit of the young people attending those schools.  As a Labour administration we have never hidden our belief that schools should be accountable to locally elected councils and not to the Secretary of State via profit-making organisations, but, we have taken a pragmatic approach and vowed to continue to work with all schools, whatever their governance arrangements.

Similarly, as a Council we worked with the sponsors of the proposed University Technical College in East Reading, when what was being proposed was an 11 to 19 school for young people in east Reading.   Our opposition to the latest proposal for a 14 to 19 Technical Academy with a catchment area from High Wycombe to Basingstoke and Newbury to Windsor is because it does not meet the needs of families and young people in east Reading.  The petition which Tony Jones presented to Cabinet called upon the government to reconsider their scheme by widening the age range and curriculum and narrowing the catchment.

We are further castigated for not supporting the drive to improve standards, what nonsense, when standards in Reading schools have consistently risen over many years.  Our prime concern is to be able to offer a high quality educational experience to all young people.  Our projections show that all schools which children from east Reading currently attend will be full in only a few years time.  Rob Wilson’s Technical Academy will not help address this urgent need.

If anyone is indulging in political posturing it is the Tory MP for Reading East.

Labour’s candidate for Redlands, Tony Jones, is to present a petition to Reading’s Cabinet on Monday 16 April calling on the Government to reconsider the decision to only fund a new technology based 14-19 secondary school in east Reading and instead to invest in an 11 to 19 years comprehensive school which will offer a high quality, wide ranging curriculum to all young people in the area.

The petition was launched last November and is being submitted now to coincide with the formal “consultation” into Rob Wilson MP’s plans for a “technical academy”.

Tony Jones says: “The Crescent Road site is the obvious site for a new school for East Reading but building a school there just for the 14-19 age-group is educational madness.  Where are the 11-13 year-olds supposed to go, if the Government won’t fund a school for them and has built on the only site? And it seems to have changed from being a school for East Reading, to one which is simply based in East Reading with a catchment area from Basingstoke to High Wycombe.There is immense public feeling about this and I know that Reading’s Labour Council will continue to press this case to Government.”

Labour candidate for Park Ward Rachael Chrisp, who has also leafleted residents to ask for feedback on the plans, adds: “Nobody locally understands why this is only 14-19, not 11-19, nobody can see any sense in that.  And people are very worried about plans to sell off the Crescent Road playing fields to pay for this scheme, which Mr Wilson and his colleagues seem to be pursuing even though it’s against the Council’s planning policies.”

Statement by Reading Labour Party

Reading Labour Party has condemned attempts by Reading East Conservatives to smear Labour candidates in the forthcoming local elections in the town.

ENDS