This afternoon I held a meeting with residents from Bede Walk, off Northumberland Avenue, to discuss local issues. It took some co-ordination to make sure the various different Council departments, the School and residents could attend - and to ensure I got time off work to see the problems in daylight! Although I have raised these issues with Council officers before, I wanted to give residents the chance to raise concerns with officers directly and for officers to see the issues for themselves - not something you can do via email.
One of the major bugbears of residents concerns the the fence that separates Bede Walk and Reading Girls School and the hedge that runs along. This attracts litter and has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair (partly because neither the School or he Council wanted to take overall responsibility for its upkeep). Local residents would like to see the School take steps to smarten the fence and hedge up. A very nice manager from the School attended the meeting on site and said he would investigate what could be done. It could be expensive (and would come out of the School's budget). We also have to consider what the best sort of fence should be and make sure this doesn't make the Walk too dark.
Anti-social behaviour is also a real issue for residents on Bede Walk. They have had to put up with vandalism, graffiti in their area for many years and despite reporting problems they are fed up with the lack of action from the Council and the Police. Cars have been broken into several times and residents are fearful of parking their cars near the Walk. People have told me would like to see better lighting and CCTV on the Walk.
The problems on Bede Walk have no doubt affected residents' quality of life over the years and I will keep lobbying the Council and the Police to do more. I really hope things will improve now we have a Neigbouhood Police Team.
On a positive note, the improvements to drainage on Bede Walk that I've been campaigning for over the last year are now scheduled to go ahead at the end of the month. An officer from Highways came along to the meeting today and explained to residents what was planned. Residents were able to show him exactly what has been happening - 2007 was not the first year they were flooded and the design of the Walk has been partly to blame. Hopefully the sandbags which we got from the Council can be put in to storage when this long-running saga is sorted!
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