Nine Mile Ride faces six weeks of closures for pavement works

PLANS are being made to close one of Wokingham’s busiest roads to allow pavement works to take place.

Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) is proposing to shut Nine Mile Ride to traffic for six weeks as they aim to complete a safe route from Finchampstead to the Bohunt School in time for September.

The closures will run from Saturday, July 22 to Sunday, September 3 and will affect Park Lane as well as Nine Mile Ride (NMR).

The work is scheduled to take place off-peak and diversions, using Biggs Lane and Langley Common Road, will be used during the closures. Access for residents and businesses will be maintained during the work and Reading Buses’ Leopard service will face diversions.

A public notice in a Bracknell publication saw Wokingham Borough Council state: “The reason for these prohibitions is to enable Wokingham Borough Council contractors to undertake footway improvements and associated work in safety”.

Finchampstead South councillor Ian Pittock said that while the work will help the situation for local pupils who have signed up to the Bohunt School, it is not the complete story.

The safe route being proposed by WBC is a greenway that runs from behind the FBC Centre in Gorse Ride North. There are concerns from some parents that the route will not be safe, being only partly lit during school run times.

The changes to Nine Mile Ride will make it safer for pedestrians, but Cllr Pittock says that it won’t be the solution long promised to parents before the Bohunt opened.

He told The Wokingham Paper: “I’m grateful for the upgrade of the footway. It’s a bit late but it’s needed.

“There will be a number of cycling children in the vicinity who won’t go on to the greenway, it’s possible they’ll go along the NMR footway.

“So the proposed speed reductions to Nine Mile Ride and Park Lane is excellent, it’s great stuff and just what’s needed.”

He added that the work had to be done during the school holidays.

“It’s over the summer, so there’s less traffic. Yes, it will be a pain for some but residents will still get access to their homes and, importantly, California Country Park.”

But Cllr Pittock is concerned that the proposed safe cycleway down the NMR will never get completed.

The Liberal Democrat said: “We all recognise we can’t get this by September, but what are they [WBC] going to do to get it in place? Will the members step up to the plate and do something about it, or kick it into the long grass?”

The news of the closure came as a surprise to some local councillors who have already been taking complaints from residents over other road projects in the area including the Shinfield Relief Road which is already a year behind schedule.

Independent councillor for Arborfield, Cllr Gary Cowan, said: “Does Wokingham Borough Council actually care about its residents? In highway terms it would appear not.

“The shambles of the Shinfield bypass and its impact on the A327.

“The closure of the A327 just past Arborfield.

“The continued closure of Sheerlands Road.

“The three- and four-way traffic lights popping up everywhere with little or no notice and the use of unsuitable B-roads as main traffic thoroughfares with the longterm closure of the Nine Mile Ride is a disgrace.

“They are the highway authority and if this is the best they can do for residents they should be ashamed of themselves.”