News

The much-improved new pedestrian route from Vastern Road direct into the town centre will connect residents living north of the station.

The current passenger bridge will close permanently, to allow new platforms underneath it to be completed. For four weeks people will be able to use a temporary walking route via the new subway. Those using the temporary route should allow up to an additional 15 minutes to get to their trains.

The subway, which will be maintained by Council, has a new lighting and digital CCTV system linked to the station and police.

A Medieval Reading Abbey manuscript is on display at at Berkshire Records Office. The ancient manuscript documents part of Reading Abbey’s history dating back to the 14th Century.

The manuscript was bought for £36,000 from a private collection from funds raised through donations and grants.

Reading Abbey was founded by Henry I in 1121 and the king was buried there.

The abbey was mostly destroyed in 1538 during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and is now a ruin.

The survey – published on Tuesday (Feb 26) – shows Reading now sits at 260 out of 2,097 participants, including public sector buildings, offices and places like shopping centres. This compared to last year’s position of 1129 last year.

The Council has reduced its carbon footprint by almost 30% by taking forward a wide variety of projects including lighting upgrade across numerous council buildings and schools, and the improved use of heating controls within council buildings.

The CRC table can be found on the Environment Agency website: http://crc.environment-agency.gov.uk/pplt/web/plt/public/2011-12/CRCPerformanceLeagueTable20112012

Reading has been named as one of 20 areas in the country to have been chosen to take forward their City Deal bid.

So-called ‘City Deals’ are special arrangements negotiated between Central Government and areas / cities, where they are given the powers and tools they need to drive local economic growth.

In Reading’s case, the bid was put forward by Reading Borough Council on behalf of the Reading and Central Berkshire City Region.

Reading’s bid centres around giving young people who grew up and live in the area the skills they need to access local job opportunities. This includes driving down the skills gap that exists which in some cases can mean young people are not accessing any employment opportunities that may be available.

Examples of the gap between jobs on the market in Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham and West Berkshire, and jobseekers demand for those jobs include:

• Construction – Job Supply: 1038 Jobseekers demand: 220
• Social Care – Job Supply: 435 Jobseekers demand: 100
• Hospitality and Catering – Job Supply: 138 Jobseekers demand: 130
• Logistics – Job Supply: 314 Jobseekers demand: 145

Following today’s announcement, the next stage in the process is for Reading and its partners (* see notes to editors) to negotiate with the Government on what powers it needs to best achieve its aims.

Rigdeway Primary School is celebrating a positive Ofsted report after it was graded a “good” school.

The Reading primary school was previously graded “satisfactory” after its previous Ofsted inspection. Now the school’s leadership is aiming to improve further and become an outstanding school.

The school was graded “good” in all assessed categories: Achievement of pupils; Quality of Teaching; Behaviour and Safety of Pupils; Leadership and Management.

The report heaps praise at the school for its “consistently good or better” standard of teaching and it also says that pupils go on to make good progress.

The full report, which was released on 15th February, can be found at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/109789.