Wokingham

Wokingham Borough Council is reassuring parents and residents that plans are in place to keep any disruption caused by the expansion of Winnersh Primary School to a minimum.

The Wokingham school needs an additional class to allow more Winnersh residents to send their children to a local school. The council is also aware of concerns among the community about extra school traffic. Therefore, an integral part of the plans for expansion is a package of measures to reduce any traffic disruption for local residents. This includes:

a new drop off zone on the school site. This will be managed by the school to provide a flow of cars with parents pausing to unload their children before releasing the space for another vehicle. This will only be available at school opening and closing times and will allow parents to turn in Poplar Lane without the need for a three-point turn

additional car parking on site, so staff don’t park on local roads.

an improved footpath and new entrances to the site to encourage more Wokingham parents to walk their children to school.

parking controls at strategic points on local roads to ensure cars can move freely. The school will request additional enforcement once the new restrictions are in place.

reducing the number of trips by car to the site by encouraging walking and car sharing through a Wokingham School Travel Plan.

plans to find sites for ‘park and stride’ and walking bus schemes, enabling parents who must drive to school to park away from the site and to work together to help more children to walk in (subject to agreement with land owners for parking).

The construction project itself will be managed by Wokingham Borough Council, working with contractors. All have extensive experience of managing projects to avoid nuisance to neighbours and to keep children safe and learning well. Safeguards include:

delivery times to avoid the start and finish of the school day
restricted hours of work to avoid unsociable hours
particularly noisy activities to be carried out in school holidays.
securely fenced and separate work areas
modern construction methods to minimise the amount of work that needs to be done on site.

Councillor Rob Stanton, executive member for Wokingham education services, said: “I know that parents and the school community are concerned about both extra traffic and noise from the school expansion project. I also know that Winnersh parents need these additional places so their children don’t need to be driven to schools outside their community. For that reason we are doing everything in our power to ensure that school-run traffic is kept to a minimum and managed to ensure local residents can go about their daily business with the minimum of inconvenience.”

At a meeting last week (January 26), the governors of Winnersh Primary School supported the ‘expansion of the school on the grounds of the educational benefits for the pupils and the improved facilities for both children and staff’. They also recognised the additional traffic the plans would ‘create in the locality’ and governors are working with the council on ways to mitigate this.

The planning application (reference F/2012/0042) for the school expansion has now been submitted and the formal consultation is under way. Comments need to be submitted by February 14:

email to: development.control@wokingham.gov.uk
writing to Development Control, Wokingham Borough Council, Civic Offices, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1BN

Wokingham Borough Council

An employee who defrauded the Wokingham company she worked for out of thousands of pounds has been jailed.

Diana Cummins, aged 55, of McCarthy Way, Wokingham, was sentenced to a total of three years imprisonment for four counts of fraud by abuse of position and one count of theft at Reading Crown Court on Friday 3 February.

She pleaded guilty to all five Wokingham offences and received three years for each count, to be served concurrently.

Cummins was employed to complete accounts for Bering Heating Supplies in Wokingham – the trading name for Northcourt Garage in Northcourt Avenue, Reading.

The 55-year-old defrauded the Wokingham company by a total of £417,782.33 between 2007 and 2010.

Act Det Sgt William Crowther, from Lodden Valley, said: “I am happy with the sentence which reflects the seriousness of the offence and the appalling abuse of trust committed by Diana Cummins who stole the money with no regard for her employer, or the other members of staff who worked there. Diana Cummins’s long period of offending defrauded the company of over £400,000 and she used the money stolen to fund her lavish lifestyle.”

Thames Valley Police ~ Wokingham

Wokingham Borough Council has recently implemented its new residents parking protocol after it was agreed by the Council’s executive on September 30, 2011. A new protocol was adopted after the previous policy did not consider parking capacity issues on some of the boroughs roads.

Any road can be considered for a Wokingham residents’ parking permit scheme and can be applied for by residents. However, the decision to implement such a scheme is based on evidence that there is a genuine parking problem for residents that is being made worse by the parking of vehicles not associated with the residential properties within the road.

The hours of operation are based on a Wokingham road by road basis, taking into account the local conditions of that road and its surroundings. Various hours of operation are used within the borough, depending upon where the permit scheme is running.

The current set of standard charges for permits is proposed to remain the same at £30, with the exception of a carers’ permit which is now waived. Currently carer permits are charged at either £5 or £10 depending on the residents parking scheme. It is proposed to waive this charge considering equality for all vulnerable members of the public.

Cllr Keith Baker, executive member for Wokingham transport, said: “Demand for parking on some roads in the Wokingham Borough can be more than the amount of kerb-space available. The aim of the residents parking protocol aims to maintain a balance between the demands of residents and keeping traffic moving and minimising unsafe and obstructive parking.

“Therefore, each proposed residential parking scheme will be fully assessed before it is implemented.”

Although the residents parking protocol is implemented by the borough council the actual enforcement lies with the Police.

Wokingham Borough Council

Wokingham Residents will be given the opportunity to discuss mental health issues at a public workshop on Monday February 13 from 6.30pm at the Civic Offices, Shute End.

The health overview and scrutiny committee at Wokingham Borough Council established a Mental Health Task and Finish Group last August to review the mental health service for 16-year-olds and over with common to moderate mental health and wellbeing needs. It aims to identify how easy it is for individuals to access the service for the first time in the Wokingham Borough.

As part of that review the task and finish group is organising a public workshop to listen to and discuss the concerns of members of the community who have experienced trying to access these services, over the last two years, as well as those who have used the services.

Chair of the task and finish group Wokingham Cllr Charlotte Haitham-Taylor said: “What may surprise many people is that one in four people in the UK suffers from some kind of mental health problem, at some point in their life. Sadly, discussion of mental health is still considered, by some people, as something of a taboo subject.

“An individual’s experience of accessing services for the first time, getting the appropriate treatment and of longer term recovery is rarely something that is shared. The health overview and scrutiny committee needs to hear about these experiences, if we are to find better ways of understanding how to make services more easily accessible and therefore provide better patient treatment and outcomes.”

“If you or anybody close to you, aged 16 or over, has experienced mental health and wellbeing issues and you or they have accessed services in the Wokingham Borough within the last two years, then we would really value your input.”

The Wokingham committee has been looking at both statutory and voluntary services within the Wokingham Borough and now it needs help from residents to tell them first hand of any positive experiences, negative feedback or their ideas for any service provision which they feel is missing.

Places are limited. To register for the workshop or for more information, please contact Charles Yankiah on (0118) 974 6013.

Wokingham Borough Council