Spring meets drain?
RIING seat gain?? Stings tweet pain??? Oh bother – it’s King Street Lane !!! Only it’s a bit of a mess.
This year’s news headlines
03 April 2017: Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) Press Release – Work starts on the Winnersh Relief Road.
Pity about another Winnersh road being wrongly named, but you can’t have everything. A few weeks later, ever so gently, and without the merest hint that anything was amiss …
… work very quietly ground to a halt.
16 August 2017: WBC Press Release - Work starts on the Winnersh Relief Road.
This mentions WRR Phase One and King Street Lane is correctly named (cue trumpet fanfare). Yes, one of our local roads is called both a street and a lane. At the same time.
But there’s a minor ‘technicality’ when it says … “Wokingham Borough Council’s contractor for this work is Hope and Clay Ltd and any queries about onsite issues should be first directed to them”.
Last time I looked, Hope and Clay were working for the Hatch Farm developers and the road was being delivered as part of the conditions of the planning approval, signed by WBC’s head of planning.
Is this deja vu – or have we seen it all before ? Councillors, members of the executive, the former head of Highways and his staff, have been talking endlessly about how WBC are ‘delivering’ new roads, including the fabled Shinfield Eastern Relief Road.
Or at least, they were …
… right up to the point where things started going wrong, when fingers couldn’t be pointed quick enough at Reading University’s contractor, Hochtief. Allegedly, they’d badly underestimated the water table, the coffee table and the head table – which they weren’t welcome at any more.
Since then the SERR has gained an enviable reputation for its legendary lateness, uncontrollable moistness and dodgy acoustics. ‘Too loud man, too loud’
But there’s good news in that press release …
“No traffic management will be used on the carriageway during morning and evening rush hours (7am to 9.30am and 3.30pm to 6.30pm Monday to Friday) unless an application to vary has been issued. Any such change would be advertised in advance”.
Was it???
Was it heck. Traffic lights at the WRR-KSL junction has led to tailbacks in the past, along Bearwood Road past the school, down Mole Road past Nirvana, with Mill Lane in trouble too.
But this week at 5.30pm, everything was quite civilised. Queues were minimal. Most of the time, vehicles took less than a couple of minutes to clear the lights and get away.
Spot surveys at 6.30pm and 7.30am revealed there were almost no queues on the side roads either. So trying to convince you that traffic was gridlocked would be nonsense. There were hardly any jams at all.
Finally, a WBC success story
Hope and Clay resolved the safety concerns and helped young children get to primary school by creating temporary footpaths and putting some traffic lights in. These control the single lane traffic flows really well.
A search on WBC’s much improved Planning application website – looking for “King Street Lane”; “Hatch Farm”, or “Winnersh Relief Road” revealed that there’s been no ‘application to vary’ as the press release said.
But the search did reveal a retrospective planning application covering many vital advertising banners and V signs (no kidding – that’s what they’re called) for marketing the development on Matchwood Hill (more of a slope really). There’s a fighting chance that the correct number of V signs may have been given. Permission.
Special note – ‘retrospective’ is planning speak for “forgiveness later” rather than “permission first”.
But it’s a cause for jubilation that 36 advertising banners now festoon the WRR all the way along to the sales offices.
However KSL’s closing soon.
And it was doing so well – even if “da bildaaz” do think it’s called Kings Street Lane. But you know what they say about good things? They all come to an end.
And “Wokingham Borough Council’s contractor” has written about this to local residents.
In Finchampstead.
Luckily a kind soul in the on the Finchampstead and Barkham community Facebook page has posted a copy of the letter.
It’s addressed to “The Occupier”, saying that King Street Lane will be closed next week.
What do you mean you didn’t see it? Don’t you use social media
One wonders why Winnersh Borough Councillors didn’t get a copy of this letter first. Also why residents living less than 300m from the closure didn’t get a copy and whether WBC would care to offer some clarification?
As it’s nearly pantomime season
There’s even more good news …
The money to purchase the land required for Winnersh Relief Road phase 2 was approved in last Thursday’s meeting of the WBC Executive.
Oh no it wasn’t ...
Oh yes it was …
Oh no it wasn’t …
Oh yes it was …
Prove It.
Those of us who only get the Public Document Pack for the Executive meeting, as opposed to the super-secret, burn before leaking, “part 2” confidential stuff, have absolutely no idea as to which parcels of land were approved for purchase, because the titles and descriptions were ever so slightly missing.
Coming soon on the Reading Road
Local residents won’t be overjoyed when roadworks shut the Reading Road through Winnersh some time in 2018 or 2019. But a farsighted Winnersh Borough Councillor has asked WBC to open up the Winnersh Relief Road phase 1 if that happens, so that traffic from Wokingham can still get to Reading, Earley, Woodley or the motorway.
But another Winnersh Borough Councillor has said this week that they’ll lie in the road if that happens.
Frankly I’m shocked, because WBC Councillors have given solemn undertakings not to lie.
In the road or anywhere else for that matter. Best keep your truth meters handy and switch them to baffle-waffle mode to detect any ‘mend a city’ comments.