Making change happen

REGULAR readers of this column will know that WATCH is about change – changing how we think about local travel and encouraging local politicians to make these changes possible.

Since plans for a new distributor road and roundabout to the south west of Wokingham were published in January, we have been talking about the poor design for walking and cycling.

This week we had the chance to address the committee responsible for approving these proposals.

We were listened to respectfully and our concerns were understood, but ultimately each application was approved without any of our points being addressed.

How is it that the Council finds itself making decisions that self-limit its own plans on the climate emergency, air quality and congestion, while also making residents’ lives less safe and attractive?

We’ve felt for a while that the needs of walkers and cyclists are poorly understood by many council officers and councillors.

Last summer’s town centre emergency measures, and the mess that is the London Road cycling scheme, both serve as evidence of this and this week hasn’t changed our view.

The planning system ought to serve as a safeguard, but it seems to face its own challenges, as epitomised by the response given when councillors asked repeatedly why a stretch of existing grass verge could not be reallocated to cycling.

Such a change, they were told, would result in the likely collapse of the entire Strategic Development Area plan – this extraordinary discussion can be viewed on the Council’s online recording.

Objectors cannot hope to succeed when the three minutes they are given to speak is pitched against multiple lengthy responses from a council applicant unwilling or unable to concede any issues with their proposal.

So, it seems that cyclists and pedestrians in the new development will have to share the pavement, and take their lives in their hands crossing unaided the new Molly Millars Lane roundabout.

As we walked and cycled home from the meeting, having failed on this occasion to make change happen, we sensed that our lives were perhaps not as valued as we had hoped.

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