Wokingham

Wokingham Borough Council is now offering Rebound Therapy at St Crispin’s Sports Centre, Wokingham as part of the Activise programme.

Rebound Therapy is a trampoline based activity that is used to facilitate movement. This is done by using a range of techniques for people with learning or physical disabilities, using all parts of the anatomy.

The Wokingham sessions are one to one and tailored to the individual’s need or goals that they want to achieve. A range of benefits include physical, psychological, sensory and social, along with the opportunity to have fun.

The sessions use techniques that respond to the individual, which involve using stimulating movements, sounds, objects and body recognition skills for people that have a mild or profound multiple learning disabilities. More able participants benefit from learning skills and techniques similar to disability trampolining.

The Activise Wokingham programme offers sports and physical activities for adults with a long term health condition such as mental health conditions, substance misuse or learning and physical disability, plus other adult groups such as young parents, young offenders or people at risk of offending and families with support needs.

Other sessions available include multi sports, badminton, Nordic walking and health walks. There will also be two events in line with this year’s summer events, which include a learning disability football and athletics tournament in June, as well as a disability awareness sports event in September.

Parent Helen Duncan said: “Gemma has benefitted tremendously from weekly Rebound Therapy. The instructors are encouraging and supportive and there is a great sense of camaraderie and fun each week. Gemma says that she looks forward to going each week and has made some new friends. She especially likes the trampoline and, although she was nervous at first, is getting better each week.”

Another parent Sue Johnson said: “I would say that the sports session have been great for William. As young people with a leaning disability get older, I have found that there are fewer opportunities to access sport in a social way and I am really pleased that Wokingham Borough Council continues to provide this. The range of activities on offer is varied and the staff are all very supportive.

“William has poor eyesight so activities like badminton and table tennis are good for improving his hand-eye coordination. William was really pleased when he found that he could take part in trampolining. This is an activity that he enjoys but has not been able to access for many years. Hopefully this will be good for his sense of balance as well as helping with his overall fitness.”

For more information about Rebound Therapy or the Activise programme, residents should contact Wokingham council’s sports development team on (0118) 974 6264 or
sportsdevelopment@wokingham.gov.uk.

Wokingham Borough Council

The blueprint to create the Wokingham borough wanted by residents, community groups and businesses went before the council’s executive last week (March 29).

The Vision for Wokingham Borough, setting out the council’s priorities and underpinning principles, was agreed by council in February. At their meeting last week, members of the council’s executive considered the Interim Corporate Plan, which sets out how these will be delivered, and will drive service planning across the council.

Interim Wokingham chief executive Andy Couldrick said: “The Interim Corporate Plan provides further information to support the vision and sets out some high level actions during the next three years to deliver on it.

“The intention is for this to form the basis of detailed service planning which will translate into a final corporate plan which we will bring back to executive next year.”

Under the strap line, ‘A great place to live, an even better place to do business,’ the Wokingham vision has five main priorities:

# Improve the educational attainment in our schools, ensuring that all the borough’s children have the opportunity to achieve their potential
# Invest in regenerating our towns and villages, supporting economic prosperity, while encouraging business growth
# Ensure we have strong sustainable communities that are vibrant and supported by well-designed development; for example through the core strategy and strategic development locations
# Tackle traffic congestion, with schemes such as the station link road proposals
# Improve the way in which customers can access council services and make it easier to do business with us – whether booking a tennis court or accessing social care services

The vision describes the sort of place the council and residents wish Wokingham Borough to be in 10 to 20 years.

It also details how these Wokingham priorities will be achieved. They include:

# New grass root approaches to working with children, families, communities, schools and colleges to tackle under-achievement
# Helping businesses, town and parish councils and residents in borough towns and villages understand and recognise economic opportunities to ensure they make the most of them
# Exploring funding to support borough and local aspirations, and engaging with external agencies, partners and other stakeholders
# Supporting the development of major transport projects which are crucial to local growth, such as the town centre redevelopment
# Creating a fully interactive and transactional website for customers and streamlining council procedures for public enquiries

“Understanding the needs and aspirations of our residents both now, and in the future is, and will continue to be, critical to the way we target and deliver our services,” said Andy.

“By focusing on the outcomes we want to achieve, rather than spending time and money scrutinising the detail of how services are delivered, we believe we can give residents the right services at the right price.

“We are working with residents and partners to deliver this exciting new vision that will see Wokingham Borough continuing to be a great place to live, and an even better place to do business.”

Wokingham Borough Council

A new Resident Resource Centre in Targett Court, Winnersh, Wokingham is now providing a real boost to tenants and residents, providing advice, guidance and support, as well as a direct link to Wokingham Borough Council’s tenant involvement team.

The centre celebrated its official opening on Wednesday March 21, 2012 with Wokingham tenants, local residents, councillors and tenant services staff taking a look at the recently refurbished facility. The new resource centre will act as a community hub, providing a venue for tenant meetings as well as rent and housing surgeries. The centre is now also home to the council’s tenant involvement team.

Wokingham Borough Council has many ‘involved tenants’ – volunteer tenants who work with the council to improve the quality of service for all tenants in the borough. The new centre will provide a base for them, as well as a venue for ongoing training and tenant involvement activities and events.

Officially opening the new resource centre, head of Wokingham tenant services Simon Price said: “It is important that tenants are able to access community facilities such as Targett Court to allow them to successfully work in partnership with tenant services. With the borough’s move to a self-financing housing service, I am hoping tenant and leaseholder involvement will continue to develop and improve, building on the current successes of the existing Tenant and Landlord Improvement Panel and the Housing Management, Repairs and Maintenance and Communications and Customer Care Working Groups.”

Maureen Ford, chair of the Wokingham Tenant and Landlord Improvement Panel, said: “The Resident Resource Centre is for all residents of the borough – not just those in the local area – to come and find information relating to Wokingham Borough Council. We hope that residents, as well as our ‘involved tenants’ will make use of the facilities now available to them.”

The resource centre is open between 10am and 3pm Monday to Friday. Residents can report any community issues to the centre, for instance fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles and faulty street-lighting, as well as visit the tenant involvement team for advice and support.

For more information on tenant involvement see: www.wokingham.gov.uk/housing/council/involvement/

Wokingham Borough Council

A group of Wokingham Borough social care customers with disabilities won the award for ‘the most creative and innovative session about personalised services’ at the Festival of Ideas and Possibilities event last week (March 20).

Organised by Sitra and Box of Frogs in partnership with Health and Social Care Partnership South East, the event, held in Woking, focused on personalised services for people who use social care services and supported housing. Organisations providing care and support services from the South East region were invited to take part in this event and over 140 people took part in workshops and presentations.

Wokingham Borough Council was represented by a group of social care customers trained as Choice Champions to support people new to self-directed support and personalised services. Choice Champions are able to share their experience of personal budgets (money allocated by the borough council for care and support services) and offer advice to people who are either receiving assistance from social services for the first time or are switching to the new system of personal budgets.

At the Festival of Ideas and Possibilities, Wokingham Choice Champions were able to share their experiences of personalised care and support services in the Wokingham borough and the peer mentoring scheme with representatives of housing, support and care organisations from the whole of South East.

The Choice Champions talked to the event participants, took part in several interactive sessions about personalised services and held a workshop focusing specifically on the Choice Champions scheme and personalised services in the Wokingham Borough. Participants were invited to cast votes for the most creative and innovative session about personalised services and the award was given to the Wokingham Choice Champions.

Stuart Rowbotham, strategic director for commissioning at Wokingham Borough Council, said: “The Choice Champions offer unique support to people new to personalised care and support services. They are a highly motivated and enthusiastic group of people who are keen to help others who are in a similar situation to theirs. The award is a great recognition of the Choice Champions scheme not only locally, but also within the South East region.”

Wokingham Borough Council

A Bracknell man has been ordered to pay back £21,000 he stole from his employers in Sindlesham, near Wokingham.

Vimal Unewal, aged 34, from Abbotsbury, Great Hollands, appeared at Reading Crown Court on Friday (30/3), and was ordered to pay back £21,000 in a confiscation order made under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Unewal pleaded guilty at the same court in December to stealing the cash from his employer, Pulse 8, Wokingham over a four month period in early 2011, when he was employed as a part-time barman there.

He was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Shortly after his arrest in June 2011, Wokingham Thames Valley Police secured a Proceeds of Crime Act Restraint Order over monies held in Unewal’s bank accounts in order to preserve them for these proceedings.

Unewal now has 48 days to repay the money which will be paid over in full to Pulse 8.

Financial Investigator Jennifer Bailey, from the Thames Valley Police Economic Crime Unit, said: “The Proceeds of Crime Act is a vital tool used to ensure that a criminal’s assets can be preserved and taken back to make restitution to the victims of crime. It proves that crime does not pay.”

Thames Valley Police ~ Wokingham

Older people who may be at risk of trips and falls could benefit from the Steady Steps classes runby Wokingham Borough Council.

Wokingham Steady Steps classes are designed to improve people’s balance, coordination, muscle strength, confidence and general well-being and are run by specialist instructors.

There are eligibility guidelines which enable Wokingham residents to be referred onto the programme, which include those who are aged 60 and over, people who are recovering from illness or surgery and those who have suffered previous trips, slips and falls.

Referral forms are available from GPs, practice nurses and health professionals or those who believe they may be eligible can contact the council’s Steady Steps coordinator Claire Osler on (0118) 974 6265 or email: steady.steps@wokingham.gov.uk.

Steady Steps co-ordinator Claire Osler said: “Trips, slips and falls can often lead to injuries that need hospital treatment and even hospital stays – these can lead to loss of confidence and independence. However these sorts of accidents are avoidable and the Steady Steps classes are good places to learn how to prevent them.”

Wokingham Borough Council

Residents in the Wokingham Borough are now benefitting from the Active Hearts cardiac rehabilitation programme, which was launched on Tuesday February 21 at Loddon Valley Leisure Centre in Lower Earley.

The Active Hearts programme, a partnership working between Wokingham Borough Council and NHS Berkshire West, is designed to help patients recover and stay healthy after a heart attack or heart operation and for those who are at risk of developing heart disease.

The programme is an ongoing exercise and education programme, with exercise classes taking place every Tuesday at Loddon Valley Leisure Centre, with other classes starting soon across the borough.

Hospitals and GP’s can refer patients onto the Wokingham programme where the benefits of the programme to the patients can include; greater survival rates, reduced hospital admissions, better clinical outcomes and altogether improved health and well-being. All classes are run by qualified cardiac rehabilitation instructors who set the level of the exercise specific for the participants and monitor their health and fitness regularly.

Wokingham Borough Council’s programme co-ordinator Polly Simpkins said: “We have many patients who have been referred already and are benefitting from the cardiac rehabilitation exercise classes which are taking place. We are hoping that more people will be able to take part in these classes which are ongoing throughout the year and will be based at various venues throughout the Borough.”

Additional funding, to purchase equipment for the classes, was kindly provided by local organisation T.H.R.O.B (The Heart Rehabilitation Organisation of Berkshire).

Wokingham Borough Council

Thames Valley Police is appealing for specific witnesses following an alleged assault in Wokingham.

The Wokingham incident, which involved two motorists, happened in Molly Millars Lane between 3.30pm and 4.30pm on Tuesday 20 March and resulted from a dispute over driving manoeuvres. A 21-year-old man was allegedly punched several times by a second man during the incident.

Investigating officer Wokingham PC Alex Turnbull is appealing for the drivers of a blue Renault Scenic and a red Peugeot, who are believed to have been in the area at the time of the incident, to come forward as they may hold information relevant to the inquiry.

If you can help, please call PC Turnbull via the 24-hour Police Enquiry Centre on 101.

If you don’t want to speak directly to the police you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.

Thames Valley Police ~ Wokingham

Wokingham Borough children are to benefit from a special charity performance of William Nicholson’s Katherine Howard at Wokingham Theatre on Wednesday April 25 at 7.45pm.

The Wokingham Borough Mayor Cllr Dianne King will host the evening in aid of Berkshire Give a Child a Chance, a charity administered by the Berkshire Community Foundation that supports children in need across Berkshire. All money raised by the Mayor will be ring-fenced for Wokingham children. Tickets are £5 and, for this performance, can only be purchased by calling the borough council on (0118) 974 6004.

The play opens on the wedding night of Henry VIII and his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and closes with the execution of his fifth wife, Katherine Howard, found guilty of adultery. Nicholson’s play takes a slice of Tudor history and turns it into pure theatrical magic. A play with political intrigue; plots and betrayals with a pointed and sometimes comic portrayal of women’s lives in Tudor times. All these, and more, are elements of this entertaining, thoughtful, intelligent play from the author of Shadowlands.

The Wokingham Borough Mayor, Cllr Dianne King said: “I am so pleased that Wokingham Theatre has offered to support my charity Give a Child a Chance with this special performance of Katherine Howard. Tickets have already been selling out for the remaining days so this is a great way to get to see a popular production and support the Borough’s children.”

For more information and tickets call (0118) 974 6004.

Wokingham Borough Council

Wokingham Thames Valley Police can confirm that a second man has died as a result of a collision in Winnersh last week.

The 19-year-old man from Winnersh, Wokingham died at the John Radcliffe Hospital shortly before midnight yesterday (21/3).

Police are continuing to appeal for witnesses to the collision which happened on the A329 Reading Road at the Winnersh crossroads at 8.55pm on 14 March.

Anyone with any information about this Wokingham collision should contact Sgt Beth Walton at the Aylesbury road death investigation unit on the non-emergency number 101.

If you don’t want to speak directly to the police you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.

Thames Valley Police ~ Wokingham