A little while ago, I was contacted by a constituent last week who's car was damaged when a skip in Donnington Road was removed. As you may know, Donnington Road has cars parked 'nose to tail',so accidents like this happen quite regularly, which is obviously highly regrettable.
You may remember I've been campaigning to get the Council to tackle the issue of skips (and all the associated problems they bring with them) for a long tme.
On hearing about the latest problem my constituents were facing, I pressed the Council to review it's skip licensing policy to ensure that the Council keeps a lid on the overall number of skips, and the impact they are having on our local streets: skips are eysores (attracting flytipping), reduce available parking for residents and visitors, and in congested areas cars can be damaged when they are moved.
I am pleased to say that in response to my enquiry, Council officers tell me that they are planning to review the fee structure for skips as a means of reducing the overall time they are taking up space on the public highway.
It was therefore encouraging to see in today's Evening Post,that the Redlands & University Neighbourhood Action Group is supporting my campaign for tougher action.
I have to disagree with the impression University of Reading's Community Relations Manager, Ann Westgarth's impression of reporting environmental issues to the RBC, however:
'Residents feel confident about ringing up and reporting things in the area when they know and can see that things are getting done'
Sadly, as I've pointed out many times before, local residents I speak to on a regular basis, across Redlands, are deeply dissatisfied at the time it takes for local issues to be tackled by the Labour-run Council when they use the call centre to report issues.
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