Wokingham

With the Beijing Olympics coming up, this year’s Summer Reading Challenge at Wokingham borough’s libraries will be the sport-themed Team Read.

Each year children across the Wokingham borough are offered the chance to join the reading challenge, which aims to inspire them to read six library books during their school summer holidays, and this year’s challenge, Team Read, kicks off on July 12.

Team Read is free to join at any of the Wokingham borough’s libraries and, on joining, children will be given a free Team Read pack of goodies. Those taking part will be given a sticker for each book they read so they can chart their progress through the challenge. If they read six books during the challenge, they will receive a prize and certificate, plus they will be entered into a prize draw to win a Team Read goodie bag.

Throughout the challenge, Wokingham borough’s libraries will be holding sports-themed events to tie-in with the challenge.

These will include Family Reading Olympics when parents can take five to 12-year-olds to two hours of sport-themed fun with games, quizzes, crafts and more. These will be at Wargrave Library, Maiden Erlegh Library and Winnersh Library.

Throughout the challenge there will be weekly Team Read Champions League sessions at some of the borough’s libraries that will offer the chance for five to 12-year-olds to enjoy quizzes and games and to pick-up ideas for sporty reads and new authors. These will be at Wokingham Library, Woodley Library, Lower Earley Library, Spencers Wood Library and Twyford Library. These will also be free and there is no need to book a place.

Younger readers will be able to join the fun at special Sporty storytimes, which are for children aged five and under. They will be at: Wargrave Library, Wokingham Library, Finchampstead Library, Woodley Library, Lower Earley Library, Spencers Wood Library, Twyford Library, Winnersh Library and Maiden Erlegh Library. Places must be booked in advance from the libraries.

Parents with children aged seven and under can take them to one of the story yoga sessions at Wokingham Library being held in August. These are specially designed yoga session for children and parents that use stories and rhymes. They will be on at Wokingham Library from 11am to 11.30am on Wednesday August 6, Wednesday August 13 and Wednesday August 20. Places must be booked in advance from the library.

As well as these activities, a Team Read Treasure Hunt is being held at all the borough’s libraries. Nine numbered Team Read characters have been hidden around each library and children - aged under 13 - must find each one and write down the numbers on them on an entry form for a chance to win a goodie bag full of books and other prizes. There can be only one entry per child and the closing date is August 31.

Wokingham Borough Council’s executive member for community development Cllr Dianne King said: “The Summer Reading Challenge is always fun and, with the Olympics this summer, it is great to have a sports theme. The summer holiday is a great time for young people to read for pleasure rather than for school work and all the borough’s libraries offer a great choice of children’s book.”

Wokingham Borough Council

Parents in the Wokingham borough are being urged not to miss out on free packs of books for the babies and children.

Bookstart book packs provide the perfect way to start reading with babies and toddlers and they are available free of charge at three stages of children’s development.

The first Bookstart pack contains two board books, a book of nursery rhymes, advice on sharing books and information about libraries. Health visitors give these packs to parents when they carry out a baby’s eight-month development review.

But the second pack, the Bookstart Plus pack, which contain two books, a colouring pad, a pack of crayons, a bedroom frieze, stickers for toddlers’ books and a list of great books for toddlers, must be collected from a borough library or children’s centre. The Bookstart Plus packs are available free between a child’s second and third birthdays and to collect them parents or guardians need to take their child’s red health record book to any borough library or children’s centre.

Wokingham Borough Council executive member for community development, Cllr Dianne King, said: “Reading is one of the greatest gifts to give a child – it is free, fun, educational and lasts a lifetime – so Bookstart packs are a wonderful thing for families to receive. It is important that parents and guardians realise that the second Bookstart Plus pack – which is available at a vital age for children’s reading development – is only available from libraries or children’s centres and so they must go and get them. We do not want to see piles of Bookstart Plus packs in our libraries; we want to see scores of children in them enjoying their books.”

The third pack, the Bookstart Treasure Chest,which contains picture books, stickers and a pad and pencils, is given to parents by their child’s nursery or pre-school before the child’s fourth birthday.

Wokingham Borough Council has produced posters and flyers to publicise the Bookstart scheme and more information is available from the Council’s Bookstart officer Ellen Phillips on 0118 974 3711 or via email at bookstart@wokingham.gov.uk.

Ellen Phillips said: “Bookstart aims to inspire, stimulate and create a love of reading that will give children a flying start in life. Many parents are not aware that they can collect the Bookstart Plus pack. It is really important that all parents with a child aged 24 to 36 months goes into their library or children’s centre and claim this pack that they entitled to.”

Parents and guardians could combine collecting their Bookstart Plus pack with a visit to one of the borough libraries’ many baby and child events, which include baby rhymetimes and storytimes.

Wokingham Borough Council

Imaginative young people will find plenty to attract them to two of Wokingham borough’ s libraries this summer – with a Manga Extravaganza and the Winnersh Gaming Club.

Japanese cartoon drawing, manga, has become increasingly popular and Wokingham Library holds a regular manga club for young aficionados and will host a free workshop on Friday August 15. The workshops will be in two sessions, from 10.30am to 12 midday and from 2pm to 3.30pm and will be for experts and beginners alike.

The workshop will cover basic manga drawing and drawing comic strips and participants will also be able to create a character for the library’s manga wall.

And, another popular activity for Wokingham young people, fantasy role-play gaming is on offer at Winnersh Gaming Club, which meets at Winnersh Library every Saturday from 10.30am to 12.30pm. Members, aged between 11 and 17, play games such as Warhammer 40K, Lord of the Rings and Warhammer Fantasy. No experience is necessary and all required equipment is provided. The sessions are £2 per player and places must be booked in advance from the library on 0118 974 7979.

Wokingham Borough Council executive member for community development Cllr Dianne King said: “Libraries have always been places to fire young people’s imaginations and activities such as manga and gaming fit into that tradition. The young people who come to the manga and gaming clubs stretch their imagination and develop their creativity and we hope to see more and more young people attending them.”

Wokingham Borough Council

An art exhibition marvelling the natural earth is set to go on show next week - Monday June 30 - and will be unveiled by Wokingham Borough Council’s Mayor Cllr Pauline Helliar-Symons.

Arena for the Arts is an annual celebration of visual art by children and young people from the Wokingham Borough. The exhibition, a joint project between the borough council and local schools, is based on the theme ‘The Natural Earth.’

Wokingham Artwork has been created using a variety of media including painting, photography, collage, sculpture, pottery and textiles. Pupils have focused on a whole range of aspects of the earth including buildings, the environment, insects and bugs to name just a few, and some of the artwork has been based on famous artists’ Georgia O’Keefe and Richard Long’s work.

The Coombes Infant and Nursery School looked at landscape and used clay from their own grounds to illustrate their work. Schools from the south west cluster* have created ceramic flocks of sheep which will be exhibited on the back lawn at the Civic Offices at Shute End in Wokingham.

Jane Clark, Wokingham arts development officer, said: “This exhibition symbolises the spirit of the earth and highlights how precious it is. The pupils have created such wonderful pieces of art – it’s a true inspiration.”

For the past two terms, hundreds of pupils from primary and secondary schools across the Wokingham borough have been busy exploring their creativity. Schools taking part this year are: Arborfield, Newland and Barkham Junior, Bulmershe, Colleton Primary, Farley Hill Primary*, Gorse Ride Junior, Grazeley Parochial Primary*, Hawkedon Primary, Hillside Primary, Loddon Primary, Maiden Erlegh, Robert Piggott Infant, Shinfield Infant and Nursery*, Shinfield St Mary’s CE Junior*, South Lake Primary, St Teresa’s RC Primary, The Coombes Infant and Nursery*, Waingels College, Wescott Infant School, Whiteknights Primary, and Winnersh Primary. * all schools are members of the south west cluster.

Arena for the Arts was founded by Wokingham Borough Council in 2003 and every year, hundreds of children take part in the event with workshops in schools and youth centres throughout the borough.

Mayor Cllr Pauline Helliar-Symons said: “It promises to be a wonderful exhibition and I hope that many local people will take time out of their busy day to visit the Mall Gallery. Year on year we see how talented our pupils are and I would like to thank the schools for taking part. There is a huge range of different types of artwork on display and it certainly has brought some cheer to the Civic Offices.”

Wokingham Borough Council

Visiting the United Kingdom for the first time, a genuine Italian Market will be making its first stop in Wokingham town centre next week - Friday 4 and Saturday 5 July.

The real Italian market will be in the Market Place, Wokingham between 9am and 5pm and shoppers can be tempted with a range of Italian produce including cheese such as Parmesan, Gorgonzola, and goat’s cheese, and cured meats such as Parma ham and beef bresaola. As well as olive oils from different regions of Italy, there will also be balsamic vinegars, speciality breads and a wide range of pasta.

Also available will be olives of the finest quality including some from Sicily and large green olives from Napoli to name just a few. There will be biscuits, cakes and pastries including the classic Dolci Pasticceria and different types of strudels, crackers and breadsticks.

Also on sale at the Italian Market will be Torrone – a famous cake invented in Cremona, Italy late last century. It’s best described as soft nougat and comes in 33 different flavours.

Visitors to the Wokingham market can also take advantage of the hot food on sale including Arancini, which are rice balls filled with various fillings such as spinach, cheese and ham. As well as food, there will be clothes stalls.

Brian Newman, town centre manager, said: “This is really a great coup for Wokingham as the Italian Food Market is only touring the UK for three months and they have not been seen by anyone in the country before arriving in Wokingham.

“Visitors will be able to explore the delights of the 15 stalls and there will be something that suits all food and wine lovers’ tastes. It promises to be a great few days in Wokingham town centre.”

Wokingham Borough Council

A review of car parking charges was discussed by Wokingham Borough Council’s executive last night (Thursday June 26) who decided to increase fees by 10p for an hour’s parking.

The council’s decision-making group decided to adopt a policy to standardise charges at all Wokingham borough’s council-run car parks, in a bid to make prices fair and user-friendly.

By the time changes will be implemented it will be two years since any rise, as the last review was in 2006 when a selection of car parks had charges increased. Prior to that, there had not been a review in more than four years.

The Wokingham executive last night confirmed that while charges will be formally reviewed on an annual basis, the aim is to hold prices for the next two years.

Once the changes come into effect from October 1, anyone wanting to park their vehicle in a council-run car park will be charged the following rates. *

One hour will be 70p, two hours will be £1.20, four hours will be £2, six hours will be £3 and 10 hours will be £4.

There will also be a 30 minute quick-stop ticket for 50p available at Denmark Street car park in Wokingham and Headley Road car park in Woodley, so that visitors to both town centres can run errands, such as drop of library books and go to the bank, without having to pay for the full hour.

As charges at Rose Street car park are already in line with the new fees there will be potentially no increase in charges at the car park for the next two years – meaning shoppers will be able to park in the heart of Wokingham town centre up until mid-2010 for the same price that they paid in 2006.

Additionally, the charges at Twyford and Wargrave car parks will be monitored closely and, subject to satisfactory results, will rise steadily year-on-year until they match that of all the other car parks.

Since the charging gap for car parks in these areas is considerable and in the interest of keeping increases as reasonable as possible for residents, it is expected that parity will not be reached for several years. This situation has arisen from car parks in the two villages generally not having had any increases in fees for approximately eight years, and therefore are considerably cheaper than other car parks in the borough.

Wokingham Borough Council

Wokingham Borough Council is committed to seeing improvements made to Wokingham town centre to improve its vitality and viability and will do everything within its power to see these happen to ensure Wokingham residents use and enjoy the town.

Developer Rock Investment Group plc - as they are now known - has been trying to bring about the development for the best part of a decade. Wokingham council agreed back in 2002 to sell them Rose Street car park to assist this development. Despite having six years to complete the sale of the car park, Rock has failed to do so. And last night - June 26 -, council officers were given the go-ahead to take back control of Rose Street car park by the council’s decision-making executive.

The council is looking at the redevelopment options in relation to the whole of Wokingham town, including the possibility of talking to other developers. And, today - June 27 - the council is setting the wheels in motion by announcing its intention to publish a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union - OJEU - to invite expressions of interest to work jointly with the council to regenerate Wokingham town centre, not just Peach Place. This notice would allow the council to have a direct interest in the development.

Susan Law, Wokingham chief executive, said: “For a number of reasons related to Peach Place, including financial viability and prolonged delay by the developer, it is our view that the proposed scheme is unlikely to proceed in the near future. As a council, we strongly believe we have taken matters as far as we are able with developer Rock Investment Group plc.

“The council is therefore acting as any prudent landowner would and is taking back control of Rose Street car park, which the developer never actually purchased, despite first having the opportunity some six years ago. By doing so, it will allow us to free up the land and will give us greater choice of future development options. We - and the people of Wokingham - are totally frustrated with the whole thing.

Cllr Matthew Deegan, executive member for Wokingham community regeneration, said: “We now need to look at the options available to us. The council will also look at entering into competitive dialogue with other developers. This course of action was also agreed by the council’s decision-making executive last night. Ideas will be explored at the town centre workshop on Saturday to look at the redevelopment of the town centre as a whole, not just Peach Place. We want to facilitate the whole process to ensure we have the right developer in place to regenerate Wokingham town centre for the benefit of everyone and this must be done in a coordinated way.”

The workshop, which is being held on Saturday June 28 at the Cornerstone, Norreys Avenue, Wokingham, aims to build on the major principles and themes that were agreed at the Elms Field workshop in January, namely:
• Wokingham people wanted to consider Elms Field in the context of the whole of the town centre
• Wokingham people wanted to give input into how Elms Field and the town centre could be enhanced including establishing good quality public space.
• Wokingham people wanted the council to take an active role in regeneration of the town centre.

Wokingham Borough Council

Marvellous mechanics from Wokingham BC Ryeish Green School have raced to success in the National Formula Schools competition. Formula Schools is an engineering scheme which enables students and teachers to discover education and career pathways with an exciting project - students work as a team to design, build and race radio-controlled cars in different categories.

For this year’s race day on June 12, Ryeish Green Racers built their cars from scratch and took them along to Silverstone, where all races were time trials rewarding the teams who completed the most laps. In the petrol car category, the Ryeish Green car was winner of its heat and qualified for the finals, where the young racers were placed third overall. After taking marks for engineering, sponsors and racing final overall position was ninth nationally.

The Ryeish Green Team included pupils Jordan Wicks, Chris Withers, Charlie Angel, Ben Hitchins, Sam Frost and Ben Honeywill ably assisted by teachers Mr Brown, Mr Bishop and Ms Cocking.

Rob Brown, the teacher in charge of Ryeish Green Racers said: “We’ve been taking part in this competition every year for five years now and been in the top ten for the last four years. The students work hard to prepare and they learn really valuable skills – not just about engineering but about team work and problem solving. I’m delighted with their success. I’d like to thank our sponsors the AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment) in Aldermaston and Hebridean Woolhouse.”

Executive member for Wokingham children’s services Cllr Norman Jorgensen said: “It’s great to see such ingenuity and resourcefulness from young people. A lot of work has gone into this achievement and I am delighted to be able to congratulate the team on their success.”

Wokingham Borough Council

Wokingham Borough Council is holding three advice and information drop-in sessions to help parents of children due to start school. The sessions will help parents to understand the admission system ahead of selecting their preferences for infant and primary schools.

In November, parents of children born between September 1, 2004 and August 31, 2005 will be applying for primary school places. Wokingham Cllr Norman Jorgensen, executive member for children’s services, said: “Applying for a school place can be quite daunting for parents. A good understanding of the school admission application and allocation process helps parents make realistic preferences for their children’s primary school. I hope many parents will take up this opportunity and come along to one of the information sessions to find out more.”

The three Wokingham drop-in sessions are designed to provide the necessary understanding of the process and allow parents to ask any questions they have and discuss what sorts of things they are looking for in a school. They are being held at:

- The Brambles Children’s Centre, Budges Gardens, Wokingham, on Monday, July 7 from 10am to 12 noon.
- The Ambleside Centre, Ambleside Close, Woodley, on Tuesday July 8 from 1pm to 2.30pm.
- The Riverdale Children’s Centre, Silverdale Road, Earley, on Friday July 11 from 10.15am to 12.15pm.

Places are limited so parents will need to book a place from Tammy Howard, Wokingham Borough Council’s school preference advisor, on 0118 935 2255 or email: tammy.howard@wokingham.gov.uk.

Wokingham Borough Council

Pupils at four primary schools in the Wokingham Borough will have their routes to class made safer thanks to the very first variable 20mph speed limits in England being introduced to coincide with the school day.

Wokingham Borough Council’s highways team are the first in England to secure variable speed limits that come into force at times when children start school and leave for the day.

The team was given the go-ahead to seek approval for variable 20mph speed limits to be put in place outside four of the borough’s rural primary schools by the council’s decision-making executive last year. This was upheld by the Department for Transport (DFT) subject to consultation with local residents and community groups.

As there were no objections to the variable speed limits being put in place, work to implement the reduction in speed was carried out and completed last month. The variable speed limits are now in place at:

· Bearwood Primary School in Bearwood Road, Winnersh
· Farley Hill Primary School in Church Road, Robert Piggott Junior School in School Road, Wargrave
· Grazeley Parochial Primary School in Bloomfield Hatch Lane

Motorists now have to slash their speed from 8am to 9am and 3pm to 4pm on roads running outside the four schools in a bid to safeguard the welfare of children walking and cycling to and from school. The usual speed limits will then resume once children have got to school or left for the day.

Wokingham Borough Council is the first in England to trial the concept of variable speed limits outside of schools. As the council was the first, there were no existing official signs available, so the council’s highways engineers worked closely with the DfT to develop an acceptable set of signage - which will be replicated across the country if the trial is successful.

Farley Hill School was the first to benefit from the variable speed limits as the scheme became fully operational in late May. The other three became operational on Wednesday June 18.

As this scheme is a trail all four sites will be closely monitored over the next six months, so a comprehensive set of speeds and accident data can be provided to the DfT. It will then make an assessment on the effectiveness of the trial, and if positive, the council will look at including more primary schools within this scheme.

Cllr Keith Baker, executive member for Wokingham highways and transport, said: “Creating a safer road network for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists is extremely important and by having variable speed limits outside schools were are safeguarding the welfare of some of our most vulnerable road users.

“At Wokingham Borough Council we were keen to fully utilise the opportunity to have variable speed limits outside our schools, because it gives schoolchildren that extra protection should there be an accident. It seems sensible to have a reduced speed limit at times when children, sometimes as young as four-years-old, are likely to be crossing the road.

“I’m pleased that we are setting a national example and, should the trail prove successful ,for the sake of the safety of children up and down the country I hope other local authorities look at what we are doing and decide to go forward with variable speed limits outside schools.”

Wokingham Borough Council