The Council provides community facilities that can be used and enjoyed by all local residents. We are therefore carrying out a consultation so you can tell us what you like about the area where you live and what you would like to see improved, both at our community centres and in the wider area
Closes 13 October 2023
Borough Wide Smoke Control Area In 1975 the last of 21 Smoke Control Areas (SCAs) was agreed, added together, these cover 62% of the borough. To protect all of Reading’s residents from the effects of air pollution that comes from burning solid fuel indoors, the Council is planning to expand the pre-existing SCAs to cover the whole of Reading as a SCA. This is a part of wider...
Closes 16 October 2023
Waterloo Meadows is a popular park that has facilities such as a recently renovated ball court and zipwire unit, as well as a play area that caters for children between the ages of 2 years to 12 years. The current play area needs re-landscaping and new play equipment. The project is to renovate the play area , change the layout, safety surface and new play equipment to make the area...
Closes 16 October 2023
Overview Transport matters to all of us. It connects us with our workplaces, schools, friends, and families. It helps our economy to grow and our town to thrive, but it also affects the environment which surrounds us, our health, the quality of the air we breathe, and the safety of the streets where we live. With more homes and businesses attracted to the...
Closes 11 December 2023
The Council are committed to ensuring that the hackney carriage and private hire sector remains integrated within the town’s sustainable transport network so that it can continue to move passengers to destinations safely, whilst contributing to the town’s economy with minimal environmental impact. ...
Closed 18 September 2023
Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy 2023 Reading's new draft Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI) Strategy has been developed as a sub-strategy to the Reading Transport Strategy 2040 which we will be consulting on later this year. Our EVCI Strategy is also an...
Closed 18 September 2023
The council has commissioned ORS to carry out our next residents survey. This asks about residents’ views of the council, its services and the borough. The survey will take place with a representative sample of residents, primarily by telephone, with limited in-street interviews, from 7th July...
Closed 8 September 2023
To introduce, remove or amend existing waiting restrictions and parking places within the Borough of Reading. These changes have been requested by either members of the public or by local Ward Councillors. Some of these changes are intended to reduce safety risks for motorists and pedestrians. ...
Closed 31 August 2023
Proposed alterations to the highway layout have been agreed as part of the planning permissions at Jacksons Corner, situated to the north-east of the junction with Kings Road and High Street. These were carried forward by the original planning permission 141713 and the implemented planning...
Closed 31 August 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