Redlands Liberal Democrats

Victory for cleaner, greener, and fairer Reading

Excellent news today as Labour-run Reading Borough Council announces that from April 1 free bulky waste collections will be offered for all Reading residents with a disability, who are permanently incapacitated by ill health, unemployed or on a low income.

Until the Lib Dems campaigned vigorously on this issue well over a year ago RBC only offered a very limited free collection service to pensioners only.

This led to fly tipping problems across the town.

As long ago as 2004 local people have been complaining about the impact of Labour's waste policies but Labour politicians refused to listen to them.

The University area of Redlands and Hexham Road estate have suffered particularly badly as a result as residents and landlords have rejected the idea of paying for waste collection in favour of dumping their rubbish.

Reform of the Labour Council's unfair and ineffective bulky waste policies was a key pledge in the Lib Dem alternative budget which we put forward in Febuary.

Throughout our campaign the local Tories appeared confused and when we put forward a motion calling for reform of Labour's failed policy last October they voted against it, with Labour.

To arrange a collection residents can call freephone 0800 834 035, or complete an application form online at www.reading.gov.uk or write to Streetcare, 19 Bennet Road, Reading, RG2 0QX.

To apply for a Your Reading Passport visit the Council's website or call  0118 939 0386.

This long  overdue policy change, along with targeted enforcement action (something the Lib Dems have also successfully campaigned for) will help to make Reading's environment better and reduce the financial burden on Reading's most vulnerable residents.

Well done to Glenn who has led this campaign ans to all the residents who have contacted us calling for action on this issue.

 

Alexandra Road parking at junction

A number of residents have contacted us to raise continuing concerns regarding the safety of the junction of Alexandra Rd and Addington Rd.

This area was marked as “no loading” following a campaign by Daisy last year. Unfortunately a number of visitors to the area continue to ignore this restriction.

Earlier this month, to work to resolve the problem, I met with a group including the Police Inspector and Sergeant responsible for the area, the manager of Parking Services at Reading Borough Council, and representatives of the local community.

Following this meeting, it was agreed there will be a targeted programme of communication and enforcement in the area, particularly around peak times for parking (for example Friday lunchtimes). The focus of this activity will be around ensuring the junction is safe for all road users and pedestrians, including those visiting the mosque.

In addition, at the request of the Police, I also contacted Reading Buses, to ask them to more clearly mark their bus-stops adjacent to this junction. Parking on the bus stopping area has led to significant congestion at the junction. They replied saying were already working on this, so hopefully this work will take place soon.

Finally, where residents have reported licensed vehicles parking inappropriately, the details have been sent by Daisy to the Licensing department of Reading Borough Council, who have stated their intention to take action against the Licensees.

It's a tricky problem but my hope is that some of the above work will help us make progress.

Mess around Cintra Park

A number of residents have contacted us about the mess around Cintra Park, in particular the fouling of the footpaths by dogs belonging to inconsiderate owners. After contacting the Council this week about it, I got the following reply:

 Following a visual inspection of the area we have arranged for the litter picking team to clear the area and for a mechanical sweep to remove the dog fouling.

We have also developed additional procedures to help maintain the area.
These are:

      ·        During the normal working weeks the footpath will now be litter picked twice a week as part of operational staff routine duties.

      ·        From this, staff can monitor and report back the state of the footpath in regards to dog fouling, which seems to be concerns and other areas within Parks & Open Space.

I was very pleased with this reply and assuming the above standards are delivered, I think things should get significantly better in the area

Licensing update

Following my post earlier this month about the forthcoming licence review of the Kings Tavern on Kings Road after a long period of nuisance caused by this venue, I have been notified that the review hearing will be held on 28 April at 5pm. Councillors and officers will hear from the licensee and also take in to account comments submitted by residents and also the Police.

Let's hope something is agreed in April which will reduce disturbance to local people by rowdy behaviour and other problems at this venue.

Residents who have been affected by noise or any other problems related to this venue wishing to comment can do so until that date: details how to here.

In other news, we continue to have concerns about 79 London Road, a venue where there have been a lot of noise and other related problems in recent years.

The issue came to a head last December when councillors on the Licensing Panel, in my view, missed an opportunity  to take tough action against the venue.

Licensees at this venue were required to make substantial improvements to noise insulation to prevent noise breakout and, as we feared, they have not done any work to the venue due to 'lack of funds'.

In addition, the exclusion agreed by Panel members in December which required that no live music be played for a period of 3 months has now come to an end. Also, as we are now in a new year the licensee can apply for up to 12 Temporary Event Notice (T.E.N) which allows him to hold late night events above and beyond hours agreed in the premises license.

Disgracefully, these notices are not subject to public consultation as I pointed out last year.

So, overall a far from satisfactory situation for residents living in the vicinity of 79 London Road.

One thing to draw attention to, however , a noise abatement notice issued at the end of last year is still in place and should a breach of the notice (late night noise) be witnessed then further legal action could be taken.

This means residents disturbed by noise from this venue should contact RBC's Environmental Health team to report any noise break out on 0118 939 0937 (daytime) or 0118 939 0900 (out of hours).

Please feel free to contact me about issues at either of these two venues if you have any concerns or queries.

Time for action to help private tenants at risk of repossession

Good news this week as three leading national housing bodies and Citizens Advice Bureau(CAB) have joined the campaign calling for the Labour Government to take action now to help private tenants if their landlord's property is repossessed.

I highlighted this issue as a major concern back in February, given the size of Reading's private rented sector (double the national average) and numbers of people who could be vulnerable.

I received a response from officers at Reading Borough Council although to be fair this is an issue which needs national government intervention.

This issue matters. Last year 1,500 people in Reading lost their homes and we know that the number of people at risk of repossession locally is growing. We studied the impact of the credit crunch specifically on housing at the last meeting of the HHCC Scrutiny Panel and will continue to monitor this area.

Crisis, Shelter, CAB and Chartered institute of Housing are lobbying the government for a change in the law to allow possession to be deferred to allow tenants time to find other accomodation.

Taken from the CiH website...

WHAT THE LAW SAYS: If a lender has started proceedings against a tenant's landlord, the lender is required to send notice of the possession hearing, addressed to 'The Occupier', at least 14 days prior to the hearing. From 6 April 2009, the lender must send a notice to the property within five days of receiving notification of the date of the court hearing. However the notification letter will still be addressed solely to 'the Occupier'.

Tenants who moved in after the mortgage was taken out generally have no rights to stay in the property once it has been repossessed. A lender will be able to take action to have any occupier evicted as part of the action to repossess the property.

The website also contains some useful advice for tenants:

• Always open mail addressed 'To the Occupier'. This may include notice of any possession hearings.

• If you're thinking of moving into a new property, make sure the landlord has permission from the lender to rent it out. Otherwise, the lender does not have to recognise the tenancy at all.
• If you were already living in the premises at the time when the mortgage was taken out, the lender may take you on as a tenant and allow you to pay rent to them directly. If you think you may be in this position, contact a Citizens Advice Bureau or Shelter.
• Try to find out as much you can about your prospective landlord and his/her mortgage status before taking up a tenancy - although in practice this isn't always very easy.

An Early Day Motion has been tabled in the House of Commons and I will be urging MPs to sign it.

If you or anyone you know is affected by any of the above issues please feel free to contact me direct: redlandslibdems@hotmail.co.uk

UPDATE.

I have received this email today from the office of Sarah Teather MP, Lib Dem housing spokesperson:

"Thank you for your email to Sarah Teather MP.  Sarah and the parliamentary Lib Dems will be strongly supporting this Early Day Motion, and have been pushing the government to change the law to protect private tenants."

Campaign to Save the School of Continuing Education

This morning I spoke to Lindsay Mullaney, one of the prime movers behind the campaign to save the School of Continuing Education, to offer her the full support of the Lib Dems on Reading Borough Council.

I blogged last week about the threat to the School following cuts by the Labour government to higher education budgets.

Cllr Gareth Epps and Cllr Kirsten Bayes have already spoken out strongly against the plans.

The loss of this facility would be a huge blow to the many local people who currently attend courses and the timing of the closure - in the middle of a recession - is madness. It is a double blow after the dire news about the University' Council's decision to close the School of Health and Social Care.

Lindsay and fellow student Paul Kingston have galvanised the local community into action via their campaign, launching an excellent website which includes a petition against the closure you can sign.

They will be asking asking a question at the next Council meeting on 31 March at 6.30pm.

Please support the campaign!

Roads in Redlands neglected by Labour again

Last July we launched a campaign in Redlands to get some pot hole ridden streets resurfaced after Redlands was overlooked again by the Council's highways department.

Glenn, Kirsten and I have been regularly reporting pot holes across the ward, such as Donnington Road (pictured) and the situation is getting better not worse.This year once again the Council has failed to programme in overdue repairs for our area so our campaign continues. We are collecting signatures for our petition to get the following roads attended to by the highways team as a priority: Blenheim Road, Carnarvon Road, De Beauvoir Road, Donnington Gardens, Hatherley Road, Hexham Road.

We have however succeeded in getting Malvern Court resurfaced as part of the Council's resurfacing scheme 2009/10, which is much needed. It is unacceptable in my view that this is the only residential street in the ward getting attention when we know there are lots of others where the road surface is making life difficult for drivers and cyclists.

London Road is the only 'major' road being resurfaced in Redlands during the next financial year.

Last October I asked the then Labour Lead Member for Transport how long residents would have to wait to see improvements and he fobbed me off with the usual non-response.

We are aware that many pavements are also in a poor state in many parts of Redlands which makes life difficult for pedestrians, particularly the elderly and disabled. Please let us know if the road surface in your area is a problem and we will raise it with officers.

In Stockport, the Lib Dem controlled Council recently awarded 4* by inspectors, has introduced the 'Pot Hole Mole' Service. This team responds proactively to calls from members of the public about pot holes and other road surface issues. Roads are patched up with a special material which is a lot cheaper than tarmacing the whole road. The service is cheap, efficient and highly popular with local people. The Council has a similar service for tackling faulty streetlights.

We will be pressing for something like this to be introduced in Reading.

In general, it is clear that highways works are not funded adequately by the Department for Transport. Under Labour, the DfT has focussed on large-scale road-building schemes in favour of funding sustainable transport solutions. Campaign website RoadRage contains details of all the schemes here. 

RBC will receive £1.3 million for highway maintenance works for the next financial year which covers £625k for carriageway resurfacing, £100k for 'micro asphalt' surfacing (patching up potholes etc) and £300k for footway resurfacing. The rest goes on bridge maintenance (£300k), road assessment surveys (£25,220) and streetl ighting (£200k).

This only pays for 5 minor roads and 7 major roads across the entire Borough to be completely resurfaced.

If you want to see if your road is one of the lucky few set to benefit you can download the list (due to be rubber-stamped at the Transport Management Panel tomorrow evening) here.

Most of the transport funding in Reading goes towards the Council's ambitious Capital Programme.

This programme was recently identified as a serious risk by the Council's external auditors KPMG:

'The challenges in managing and funding multiple large-scale capital projects (e.g. J11/M4 redevelopment, Civic Offices replacement), particularly in the current economic climate (where the level of capital receipts and developers’ contributions are declining)'

The Labour administration has long been obsessed by expensive vanity projects such as the deeply unpopular One Way IDR scheme (which was expected to cost a minimum of £14.4 million pounds).

In typical Labour fashion an apology was only made after the Lib Dems forced the administration into making one.

Most local residents I speak to regularly would like to see the Council improving streets in the Borough first before embarking on more expensive government-led transport schemes.

Saturday morning Estate walkabout

This morning, following our surgery, Kirsten and I went for a stroll around Hexham Road estate in the sunshine.  It was good to be in the open air, talking to constituents and picking up issues. It's something we like to do as often as we can and people really do like to see their local councillors in the area.

The photo above depicts a grass verge on Newcastle Road which we got the Council to protect following problems with cars parking there. This is an ongoing issue on the estate due to lack of adequate parking for residents.

There has been an outbeak of graffiti on the estate, and fly-tipping of bulky waste continues to be a problem. Sadly, some things don't change. I have requested extra bins on Hadrians Walk East. There was a lot of litter in the area, in particular on the alleyway between Newcastle Road and Cintra Park. This path has been a known hot spot for some time, although we have had some success getting additional lighting installed.

People in the area are always really friendly to us (particularly old ladies!) and it was really nice to catch up with various people we hadn't seen for a few months. One elderly lady I spoke to asked if the fence on the front garden could be painted, another asked me to check and see when the Council would be carrying out works to her house to make it easier for her to get in and out in her wheelchair.

One bit of good news was the long-awaited improvements to the security of alley-gates on the estate (see below). This was an issue I campaigned on last year and it's good to see the gates properly secured.

Kirsten and I left with a long list of things to raise with officers, a number of them environmental issues. We are happy to do this as it's all part of our ongoing campaign for a better quality of life for everyone on the estate. This is something we took on after years of neglect of the area by Labour.

Arrogant and illogical: University chiefs vote to close School

Around a month ago I blogged about our support for the campaign to save the University of Reading's School of  Health and Social Care from closure. 

Despite the close vote on the issue by the University Senate last week, we learned earlier today that the University Council has taken the decision to close the School for good in 2011.

The arrogance shown by the University of Reading on this issue is breathtaking.

Students and staff of the School united with politicians of all parties to argue for the University to re-think its decision. A total of 671 individuals signed a petition against the closure.

I was privileged to catch the end of the public meeting  in support of the campaign held in the Town Hall on Monday. The passion and determination shown by all who attended that meeting was inspiring, in the face of the University's intransigence.

Last month, the Lib Dems tabled a motion to Council calling on the University not to close the School which drew all-Party support.

As a result of the motion, Michael Coughlin, Chief Executive of RBC wrote to Professor Gordon Marshall, Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading calling on him to halt the closure.

Today I saw a copy of his response received by Mr Coughlin yesterday, it consisted of one sentence which read:

'Thank you for your letter...concerning the proposed closure of the School of Health and Social Care. I have noted the contents carefully.'

Mr Marshall's response shows him to be completely out of touch and out of step with public opinion which was overwhelmingly in favour of keeping the School open.

In addition, Mr Marshall appears to fail to acknoweldge completely any responsibility on the part of the University for the impact this decision will have on the wider community.

A statement issued by the University earlier today speaks of the University's responsibility to it's staff and students but says nothing whatsoever about it's duties to the community, stating baldly that 'the University will be making no further comment at this time'.

Sadly this attitude has echoes of the arrogant approach adopted by the University in relation to planning and other local matters in recent years.

Mr Marshall sent the letter to Michael Coughlin on the same day it was revealed that he has received an 8% increase in his take home pay and is receiving a salary of £217.513.

This is despite the fact that we were told by University management in February that the School of Social Care must close due to lack of funds being available.

This is a scandal.

The University Council has made a massive mistake in failing to recognise the vital contribution the School of Health and Social Care made not only to Reading but to Berkshire more widely and to the field of social work.

In addition, to take such a decision at a time when social work is in turmoil demonstrates utter contempt by the Univesity's senior management for what happens in the real world, outside the University.

Nationally, it is widely known that the shortage of social workers is currently at crisis level.

In Reading we know that the most vulnerable people in our community are already suffering from an acute shortage of social workers made worse by the damning performance assessment of the Council's Children's Services by Ofsted in January.

I would like to pay particular tribute to Ann Quinn, Director of the School of Health and Social Care who has led the campaign against the closure with quiet dignity throughout what must have been an incredibly stressful time. As Ann Quinn said a couple of weeks ago:

"There is no logic whatsoever in closing this school.It provides invaluable training and is completely self-sustaining.

“It is really important that senate members realise that axing the department will damage Reading’s reputation. The UK is desperately short of social workers at the moment and Reading should be at the forefront of provision not scaling things back.”

Leaving aside the arrogance of local University officials, let us not forget It is the disastrous impact of the policies of this Labour government which have wrecked higher education funding in this country, forcing Universities like Reading to take drastic action such as closing departments to stay afloat and saddling students with thousands of pounds worth of debt.

I spoke today to one student due to graduate from Reading University this year who told me he is already in debt to the tune of £20,000 and the prospect of him and many others like him finding employment after University looks bleak.

Reading University students joined the national delegation to Parliament earlier this week to protest at the latest plans to charge students up to £20,000 to go to University .

Labour MPs know how toxic their higher education policies are, which is no doubt why the review of tuition fees (and student finance) has been postponed until after the next general election.

David Blunkett, former Education Secretary responsible for introducing tuition fees in 1997 admitted himself this week that increasing tuition fees in the middle of a recession was the wrong thing to do.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Higher Education spokesman, Stephen Williams MP has called the decision:

'..a spineless act of political cowardice”.

“Whether or not you agree with the Lib Dem policy of maintaining university funding through general taxation and… reducing student debt, at least students and staff know what we stand for, that our proposals are costed and credible,” he said.

“If the review is parked until after the election, then students will rightly assume that the other parties have something nasty in store for them.”

While we mourn the loss of the School of Health and Social Care, we will continue to do all we can to support Ann Quinn, the staff and students affected by this ill-thought out decision.

Meanwhile, the fight continues to save the School of Continuing Education which has sadly also been earmarked for closure.

Students, communities and our Universities themselves deserve better.

Reducing accidents on one of Reading's most dangerous roads

I have received a response today from officers in response to my ongoing campaign to improve road safety on Northumberland Avenue, launched in January 2008.

The Thames Valley Road Safety Partnership, who are responsible for routine maintenance of the speed camera which has been damaged, have been instructed to submit a price for repair to the Council, so hopefully this will be repaired soon.

Officers have told me they have completed a study into road safety on Northumberland Avenue, considering accident hot-spots and issues. This follows sustained pressure from the Lib Dems and local residents.

I'm pleased to say proposals to improve road safety on Northumberland have been included in the Council's borough-wide road safety programme for delivery within 09/10, and will hopefully be approved by Cabinet soon.

Funding for road safety improvements is sadly very low and is only brought forward if accident rates are sufficiently high to merit intervention by the Council. Residents find this frustrating as it effectively means yes, action is taken after an accident, rather than before.

Officers have sent me details of the road safety programme. 

The fact that 5 of the Council's 9 proposed road safety schemes for the next year outlined in the programme are planned for various junctions of Northumberland Avenue clearly indicates that this is one of the most dangerous roads in Reading.

Action is long overdue.