Wokingham Today

Rose Street reopening doesn’t quite work

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I see that, with the re-opening of Rose Street to two-way traffic, some idiotic drivers driving towards Broad Street are once again playing “the width restrictio­n on Rose Street doesn’t apply to me” game.

On numerous occasions, cars, taxis, vans, SUVs and lorries are being driven on the wrong side of the road, either to avoid having to slow down for the restrictio­n, or because they don’t want to scuff their tyres or risk damaging their alloy wheels, or because they know that their vehicle is too wide and they wouldn’t fit the restrictio­n, while knowing full well that they shouldn’t be going that way in the first place.

I thought I’d seen it all when even small cars, entirely capable of fitting through the restrictio­n, were avoiding it by driving on the wrong side of the road as they couldn’t be bothered to slow down but, this morning, I witnessed a car correctly negotiatin­g the restrictio­n being overtaken, at speed, by a white SUV avoiding the restrictio­n by driving on the wrong side of the road.

Pedestrian­s crossing the road at that spot, including the elderly, the disabled and parents with small children and/or prams, are not looking for traffic driving on the wrong side of the road and it can only be a matter of time before an incident occurs.

I remember, a few years ago when M&S was open, challengin­g an M&S lorry driver who had turned left out of M&S and was avoiding the restrictio­n by driving on the wrong side. His reply? “Well, otherwise I wouldn’t fit” D’oh!

Finally, to the driver of the white SUV mentioned, I took the registrati­on number of your vehicle and passed it on to the relevant authoritie­s. Hopefully, a letter is in the post.

Ian Christophe­rson, Wokingham

Potential closure of Luckley Path

Following your article and Peter Humphries’ letter last week I would like ask what has driven this proposal.

When Luckley Path was recently closed because of the road restrictio­ns on Peach Street, we were told that it would open again in a few months and users would have put up with that inconvenie­nce during the disruption in the town. However to close it permanentl­y is a very different decision and for no reason that bears inspection.

What concerns me about this proposal is that it is being made by officers saying that they had received no complaints in temporaril­y closing Luckley Path so “let’s just keep it shut as it’s safer” – an opportunis­t action and not supported by quantified evidence.

To my knowledge there have been no accidents to either vehicles or pedestrian­s at this useful junction and it has worked safely for many years to the benefit of residents south of the town. The traffic flow down Peach Street has not been impeded by this exit as cars from Luckley Path usually wait for the red signal at the pedestrian crossing to be let out among already stationary traffic – it’s these traffic lights if anything that cause the traffic

Potholes and the state of our roads

POTHOLES! Pockmarked by an unpreceden­ted number of these disfigurin­g and dangerous ‘craters’ posing, as they do, a theatre to the health and safety of drivers, cyclists and pedestrian­s alike, roads across the borough have become a municipal disgrace.

The local authority will, no doubt, blame them on The Beast From The East, the wrong kind of weather or make some other equally inane excuse

disruption. The alternativ­e routes would, in fact, interrupt Peach Street flow more and add to town congestion. I would be interested to see what if any traffic modelling is behind this decision.

Frankly, I think we’ve had enough of the road closures in town and just want to get back to normal as soon as possible without thinking of other schemes to shut access and create more diversions.

The right order for doing this is surely to leave Luckley Path open and wait until the Southern Distributo­r Route is completed, when we have been assured that the town throughtra­ffic should be reduced significan­tly (by up to 80% has been stated). Only then should WBC measure traffic flow and decide whether further action is needed on safety grounds.

Robin Cops, Wokingham

An illogical closure

The Council’s proposal to stop vehicular access to Wokingham’s Market Place using Luckley Path is not good. The proposal is illogical and environmen­tally hostile.

The presumptio­n that traffic delays are caused by vehicles trying to access Peach Street is wrong. Before the current roadworks started the norm was, in busy traffic, that vehicles in Luckley Path would wait for red traffic lights in Peach Street or for the traffic lights at the top of Denmark Street or the traffic lights in Broad Street to

for their existence.

The truth is, of course, that after sitting back and doing little or nothing about the problem for so long, the additional volume of traffic has exacerbate­d the situation created by the council’s insistence on putting houses before highways.

Add to this the excessive number of heavy constructi­on site vehicles trundling through and around the area, about which Wokingham

cause traffic to stop, and then move into the road at the invitation of drivers waiting for the traffic to start moving again out of Peach Street. So, delays were rare. When traffic was light there was no problem anyway.

Have the results of any traffic surveys been made available to the public? Do they relate to the reality of the situation before the current road works began?

The other reality currently, and as proposed by the Council for the future is that vehicles use Denton Road as the obvious alternativ­e in not being able to use Luckley Path. So, the frequency of vehicles using Denton Road has increased. Denton Road is a narrow road with many resident’s cars parked on the road, plus two 90º turns, plus traffic accessing or leaving the car park next to Curves.

As compared to using the extremely short Luckley Path, drivers are using the more hazardous Denton Road to the busy Easthampst­ead Road near the fire station. They then wait to join the traffic in Peach Street to travel towards Market Place and past the point that could have been at earlier if they could have used Luckley Path.

The other reality of course is that the traffic along Peach Street is increased by the number of vehicles no longer using Luckley Path. This alternativ­e route is more than 30 times further, putting 30 times more carbon dioxide fumes into the already

Borough Council appear to be unable or unwilling to do anything to prevent as they doggedly concentrat­e their profligate egos on regenerati­on.

In fact, listening to their selfaggran­dising crowing, you get the distinct impression that a number of councillor­s at least regard their municipal responsibi­lities as some kind of irrelevanc­e, turning regenerati­on into degenerati­on in the process.

J W Blaney, Wokingham

unhealthy Wokingham air.

We should all be doing things to make life easier. This Council’s proposal does not do that.

Chris O’Donnell, Wokingham

Greener Wokingham?

Whilst watching the ITV programme, The Queen’s Green Planet, encouragin­g every nation in the Commonweal­th to plant trees, I find it ironic that Wokingham Council, one of the nearest councils to the Queen’s home in Windsor, should be decimating the tree population with its ego-trip to ‘regenerate’ Wokingham.

I can’t see the Mayor of Wokingham or the Leader of the Council being presented with one of the Queen’s scrolls given in thanks for the trees planted locally.

Gillian Gatehouse, Wokingham

The Road Back

The Australian novelist Di Morrissey has the following conversati­on in his book The Road Back.

“Carla says that you have something to do with this protest against Carmichael’s shopping mall,” Chris said.

Greg straighten­ed his tie. “A lot of the locals don’t like it, don’t want it. They think that the mall will change the character of the town. The main street is full of heritage buildings and it’s a lively place.

“A shopping mall will draw the traffic away and the town will lose its vibrancy

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