Overweight and obesity are major risks factors for several chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Since the pandemic, locally, we have seen increases in the prevalence of both overweight and obesity to 65.3% Nationally, (69.7% in Reading and 61.3% in West Berkshire) in 2021/22 (OHID 2023). This is of great concern. To inform how we support residents to reach...
Closes 16 June 2023
Bus Service Improvement Plan – Bus Lane Initial Consultation Reading Borough Council has been awarded over £26m funding from Central Government to improve bus services in the borough, which is the third highest funding award (per head of population) in the country. This funding is a result of the ambitious plans set out within our Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) ,...
Closes 16 June 2023
Reading Borough Council is working to update their Healthy Weight Needs Assessments. Overweight and obesity are major risks factors for a number of chronic illnesses, and unfortunately the prevalence of both continue to rise. The Local Authority is therefore reviewing factors of this prevalence, and what effective actions, including weight management services should look like for our...
Closes 16 June 2023
We are trying to find out how the local community would like to use the new Lyndhurst Road Community Centre. Please let us know by completing this survey.
Closes 1 July 2023
A carer is anyone, including children and adults who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support. The care they give is unpaid (Source: NHS England)
Closes 31 July 2023
Creating adult social care provision and affordable housing As part of our plans to deliver vital adult social care and affordable housing for the people of Reading, Reading Borough Council is working on plans to redevelop the old Central Swimming Pool site on Battle Street. This has been...
Closed 3 June 2023
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions have been made available to propose new zebra crossings on Whitley Wood Lane and Imperial Way.
Closed 1 June 2023
Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions have been made available to propose new traffic calming features on Boston Avenue and Shaw Road.
Closed 1 June 2023
Facilities Management Services w ould like your feedback on FM Service provision to understand our FM stakeholders needs and ensure we are providing the accommodation; environment you need and ensure we are achieving value for money in the services we provide. We will also...
Closed 24 May 2023
Reading Green Park Station is a new railway station on the Reading to Basingstoke line. The station and multi-modal interchange will significantly improve accessibility and connectivity to this area of south Reading which has large-scale development proposed including the expansion of Green Park...
Closed 30 April 2023
Here are some of the issues we have consulted on and their outcomes. See all outcomes
The Council ran a budget consultation exercise from 19/12/22 to 19/01/23. The consultation was accessible through the Council’s website and was promoted via the website, local media channels and various social media platforms. The consultation received 378 responses, a substantial increase from the 134 responses received last year.
Headlines from the consultation are:
• A small majority of respondents support the higher level of Council Tax increase proposed in the draft budget.
• A clear majority of respondents support the 7% increase in housing rents.
• If additional funding becomes available the service areas most supported to receive the benefit of that are Roads Maintenance and both Adult and Children’s Social Care.
• Adult Social Care also topped the list of priorities for additional capital resources.
More detailed results can be found here.
The consultation analysis highlights that the top service areas for suggested spend were Children’s Services and Adult Social Care. Another key theme was transport.
The proposed Revenue Budget and Capital Programme responds to this feedback by investing in these services. For 2023/24 Adult Social care will receive an additional £4.390m in revenue funding and a capital allocation of £3.879m. Children’s Services is boosted in 2023/24 by an extra £2.529m in revenue and £18.297m in capital. Capital expenditure on Transportation in 2023/24 totals £18.320m over a wide range of schemes
In Summer 2022, Marketing Means were commissioned by the Council to undertake a representative sample survey of 1,000 residents via telephone and in-street interviews. The purpose of the survey was to gauge levels of satisfaction with the local area, the Council and the services it provides.
However, satisfaction with individual services is generally higher than in 2022.
A summary of the results can be found here.
The residents’ survey highlighted several areas for improvement. We set out below what we are doing in response:
Roads and pavements - we have delivered a £9 million three-year highways repair scheme and have commenced an additional £8 million road and pavement investment programme.
Levels of crime - a new three-year Community Safety and Serious Violence Strategy has been approved following a needs assessment and public consultation, capturing the voices of our communities and involving key agencies such as the police and probation. Seven priorities have been identified, including reducing community based drug activity, reducing knife violence and tackling violence against women and girls. The Community Safety Partnership is now developing a three-year action plan to tackle these priorities. The plan will deliver a number of actions through working in partnership across these key areas.
Traffic congestion - we are improving bus services and delivering more bus lanes through the £26 million Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) grant funding secured from Government, building a new station at Green Park and refurbishing Reading West Station, as well as investing in cycling improvements and enhancements for pedestrians. We are investing in our traffic signal assets as well as moving to a 4G radar vehicle detection monitoring system, and updating the Urban Traffic Control systems that will improve traffic flows, reduce congestion and reduce pollution levels.
Affordable housing - we are investing a further £105 million in the delivery of 290 homes over the next three years, as well as securing nomination rights to around 400 new affordable homes through the planning process over the next four years
Cleaner streets - a free bulky waste collection service has been introduced for all residents across the borough. For Reading town centre, we will be investigating how, through our street cleansing and waste collection services, we can reduce the persistent presentation of bagged waste. This will then be rolled out to local shopping centres. In addition, we are investing in a new works scheduling system to improve efficiencies and communications for operational teams within Streetscene.
Parking - we continue to address smaller-scale parking issues raised or observed through the Waiting Restriction Review programmes and consider further rollout of resident permit parking schemes where there is demonstrable majority local support to do so. We have also commissioned a review of the Council’s Town Centre Parking Strategy.
We asked the residents of Reading to comment on the priorities we developed for our new Domestic Abuse and Safe Accommodation Strategy.
Most of the respondents felt the proposed strategic priorities were right (36 of the 46 responses - 78%)
There were clear themes identified in the feedback across the consultation. When asked about ‘comments regarding the priorities’ if the priorities ‘highlight victim-survivor needs and ‘what is missing in reducing the prevalence of domestic abuse’, many respondents had similar comments, which have been themed and explained below:
Housing
Education and training
Support services
Community engagement and domestic abuse awareness
Accessibility
We shared these findings with the Domestic Abuse Partnership Board, which is a collaborative, multi-agency partnership working together to reduce the prevalence and effects of domestic abuse within Reading. The partnership is made up of: Reading Borough Council, Thames Valley Police, Adult Social Care, Brighter Futures for Children, Drug and Alcohol Services, Berkshire West Integrated Care Systems, Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and organisations within the Voluntary sector who specialise in domestic abuse and domestic abuse within the LGBTQIA+ communities.
The findings and comments provided by the respondents were themed, shared and discussed with the Board. As the majority of respondents had agreed with the proposed strategic priorities, it was agreed by the Board to keep the priorities the same without any changes. However, the comments and issues discussed within the consultation have been highlighted in the wider Reading’s Domestic Abuse and Safe Accommodation Strategy 2023-2026, which has now been published, you can find our strategy here: Domestic Abuse and Safe Accommodation Strategy 2023-2026