Another Lib Dem win for Hexham Road residents

Back in July I blogged about our local campaign to improve Hexham Road estate which has been gaining momentum in recent months.

This follows years of neglect of the area by Labour politicians on Reading Borough Council.

Today I spoke to Council officers about exciting new plans designed to make the external estate environment on Hexham Road 'greener' and more appealing to residents and visitors.

They include plans to:

• plant around the estate on the open green spaces mature trees designed to offer seasonal colour to have the greatest impact, together with seasonal bulb planting, offering colour to the estate over a number of months. Please refer to your enclosed plan for locality.
• create a “wild garden” with many different wild flowers planted at the bottom of Hexham Road, with mown pathways through it, providing bench seating areas under the large oak tree and surrounding area. 

Find out more here: Download Housing estate hexham road 1_1000 outline proposals v3[1]

RBC's housing team will be writing to all residents on the estate about these proposals later this week to get their feedback. They have asked for comments by 13 November 2009.  Residents can email Tenantservices@reading.gov.uk or ring 01189 390161.

These proposals have been put forward after extensive consultation. It is important that what is proposed is what local people want so I hope local people will give feedback about these ideas.

These improvements have been paid for out of the new Decent Neighbourhoods Fund - something the Lib Dems sucessfully campaigned to get included in this years budget earlier this year.

In September the scrutiny panel I chair discussed a report from officers which showed the difference this extra cash is making improving the look and feel of estates in Reading.

As far as I'm aware this is the first serious bit of landscaping that has been done on this estate by the Council for many years.

We are hoping that young and old will want to get involved in helping plant bulbs and new trees on the estate.

We are very excited about these long-awaited improvements and I really hope the local residents go for it.