News

Reading shops will extend a welcome to older and disabled people during a Christmas shopping evening in the town centre on Monday 2nd December.

The festive shopping event, organised by Reading Borough Council in partnership with The Oracle and the British Red Cross, aims to make shopping an easy and enjoyable experience for older and disabled residents.

Every year the Council invites town centre retailers to put on special offers, discounts, give-aways, refreshments and entertainment throughout the evening. Stores taking part this year include; Boots Opticians, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Thorntons, BHS, Clas Ohlson, Reading FC, the West Cornwall Pasty Company and many more.

This year’s special shopping evening will take place from 6pm-8pm. As well as activities organised in the stores, shoppers will be treated to a welcome reception at the Oracle’s Shopmobility Suite and performances by the Theatretrain stage school and the Barberettes, an a cappella singing group.

There will also be a chance to meet the ‘Christmas Belles’ wandering Broad Street on the night!

Wheelchairs will be available for people to use on the night, which have been kindly donated by the Reading branch of the Red Cross and The Oracle. Volunteers from the Red Cross will be around during the Christmas shopping evening to help.

The Council has once again agreed that on this day the entry restrictions to St Mary’s Butts, West Street and Friar Street – which usually end at 7pm – will end instead at 6pm specifically to allow blue badge holders to take full advantage of the special evening.

For further information on the Special Shopping evening, please call 0118 937 2771 or visit www.reading.gov.uk/whatson.

UK Disability History Month runs from November 22nd to December 22nd. Reading Borough Council’s hosts a regular forum for people with disabilities and wants to mark the month by inviting individuals or groups to their next meeting on Thursday December 5th.

The Council’s Access and Disabilities Working Group meets quarterly to discuss issues which affect disabled people as they go about their daily lives. The group campaigns for improved access and information for disabled people and acts as a pressure group and a consultative group in identifying and promoting public awareness of problems of access for disabled people to public buildings, commercial premises, the highway network and public transport in Reading.

The Access and Disabilities Working Group meeting takes place from 2pm on Thursday December 5th in the Kennet Room, Civic Centre. People or organisations are welcome to turn up on the day and speak or, if they would like more information on the group and the sort of issues they cover, they can contact Helen Bryant on [email protected]

Reading Borough Council will ban all adverts from so-called ‘pay day loan’ firms on its property as part of a new advertising and sponsorship policy it is set to adopt.

Advertising for betting or gambling services, alcohol, tobacco and adult content would also be banned under the proposed new policy, which outlines what sort of adverts the Council will accept on it’s sites in the future.

If agreed, the banning of advertising by legal pay day loan companies – who target the vulnerable by charging exorbitant rates of interest on short term loans – will deliver on a pledge made by Council Leader Jo Lovelock as part of last week’s ‘Tackling Poverty’ event at the Town Hall.

Reading Borough Council has a number of assets across the borough where it accepts adverts. These include roundabouts, street lights, vehicles and the Council’s website, as well as publications and events. Before now no definitive policy was in place to detail what is and is not acceptable. The Advertising and Sponsorship Policy being proposed contains a number of general guidelines which will determine what can and cannot be advertised on Council property.

Under the policy, any advertising or sponsorship on Council assets would have to adhere to a number of basic principles. These are:

• Legal, decent, honest and truthful
• Created with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society
• In line with the principles of fair competition

If accepted at a meeting of the Council’s Policy Committee on Monday December 2nd, the policy will be used to govern all future advertising and sponsorship activity of the Council.

THE ‘READING Means Business on Climate Change’ Action Plan has been approved by the Council at the Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport Committee.

The action plan is part of the climate change strategy developed by a group of statutory, private and voluntary and community sector organisations – The Reading Climate Change Partnership – and incorporates the following themes:

• to reduce the energy consumption of the whole of the borough
• to ensure communications around climate change are consistent and targeted
• to enable wildlife to survive weather changes by connecting up natural habitats
• to increase the amount of renewable energy in the borough

The plan also links in with the Council’s commitment to tackle fuel poverty through delivering social schemes aimed at vulnerable people and improving standards of empty homes.
Reading Borough Council is one of the leads in delivering the action plan, alongside the Environment Agency, University of Reading and the Reading Neighbourhood Network, among others.

More information at: http://www.readingclimateaction.org.uk/strategy/

Reading Borough Council has begun demolishing derelict buildings on the corner of the town’s Crown Street and Southampton Street.

The Council owns two of the properties on the site, one is privately owned and one has become the property of the Crown after unsuccessful attempts to trace ownership.

The derelict properties have recently deteriorated further, causing them to become unstable. The Council’s Building Control Service began the process of demolishing the buildings and work will commence on Nov 28 to gain access to the rear of the properties in order to prepare the site for demolition.

There will be some traffic disruption along Southampton Street whilst demolition work takes place, with pavements and traffic lanes temporarily closed off. Localised traffic management has been put in place for the period of the works to try to keep disruption to a minimum