Welcome to Northcroft Matters!

Northcroft Matters is a web page for your district councillors, Tony Vickers and Gwen Mason to keep you up to date with Northcroft events and issues.

Tony and Gwen are keen to hear from you about Northcroft issues and you can contact them using the details at the bottom of this page.

News from Northcroft...

Gina Houghton's painting of the Monkey Bridge at Sunset

Potential place for 'Wetland Area' (from Northcroft Park looking South)

Potential place for 'Wetland Area' (from Northcroft Park looking North)

2nd October 2007

What West Fields Residents say about…..

The proposed New Link Path from Craven Road to Enborne Gate

In August we hand delivered 400 letters (with a questionnaire on the back) to residents of West Fields Estate living west of Green Lane. Fifty have now been returned, which is good for such surveys.

You can see a map with accompanying text showing where the link would go on Tony's page of the Council's website. His report of what happened when he raised the subject at the Council's ruling Executive meeting the week after delivering the letter is here. At that time only 22 forms had been returned.

Below is a summary of the 50 responses to each question.

1) Will your household use the new link when it is built?

a) *Regularly 20 b) Occasionally 22 c) Never 7

2) Do you support the Council taking enforcement action against Wimpey?

a) *Yes 44 b) No 5 c) Don't know 0

3) Do you support diversion of the SUSTRANS long-distance cycle route off the towpath and through West Fields Estate?

a) *Yes 31 b) No 8 c) Don't know 11

About Your Household (optional)

4) Numbers at this address:-

a) Adults working _61_

b) Children _22_

c) Adults not working _21_

5) Bike Ownership and use:-

a) How many people at your address own a bike? _69_

b) How many use a bike?

i) Occasionally for leisure _47_

ii) Regularly, for commuting, shopping etc. _31_

6) How often does someone living at your address visit an address off Enborne Road (W. of St Barts School > Valley Rd)?

a) *Never 11 b) Occasionally 22 c) Regularly (>once a week) 16

As you'd expect, opposition to the new path came from a cluster of people living near the far end of Craven Road and the allotments. They fear an increase in vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

Quite a lot of people didn't understand why the SUSTRANS route should be diverted off the towpath. With the increase in numbers of local people cycling - for both leisure and to school-work/shops - the narrow towpath will become congested. People unfamiliar with the area should be given the choice of a less congested route through Newbury. Anglers and cyclists don't mix well and five new fishing platforms for disabled anglers are about to be built on the stretch of towpath just west of the Monkey Bridge. No decision has been made on diverting the SUSTRANS route but the new path across the field will enable a choice to be made.

A few people don't see how the new path will help relieve congestion in Pound Street and Craven Road, as our letter claimed it would. Bearing in mind that probably more residents living off Enborne Road will use the new path - biking to town instead of driving - this means fewer cars queuing at the Pound Street lights and cutting through Rockingham & Craven Road.

In the past five years there has been a 15% reduction locally in children being driven to school as opposed to walking and biking. But we know that many more children want to walk or bike to school and are prevented by parents who fear for their safety on footways next to busy roads. The 'school run' is by far the biggest cause of congestion on our roads, so building safe and pleasant off-road foot/cycle routes is the best way to reduce traffic congestion.

Your local councillors will continue to press for the Council to make Wimpey deliver on its promise. Already we've found who owns the field and formally told Wimpey we still want the path built. We've also told them that there's a potential "Good News!" story for them here when they deliver - one mum living in West Fields is trying to start a 'walking bus' from the estate to John Rankin School and says: "this route will be a much more pleasant and safer route for us".

Monday 13th August

At last Thursday's Executive Committee meeting, one of two Questions I asked was:

"What does the Council propose doing to ensure that George Wimpey and Co fulfil their planning obligation, made four years ago and since ignored by them, to construct a new cycle and foot path connecting their development off Enborne Road with the end of Craven Road?"

Late last week, to help me gauge the views of my constituents, I personally hand-delivered 400 letters with a Questionnaire on the back about this. You can read the letter on my Council web-page, alongside a summary of the answers to the Questionnaire (22 received back so far).

The proposed new path will be far more useful to people living near Enborne Gate (Sunderland Gardens and Kingsbridge Road - in Falkland Ward) than to most Northcroft Ward residents. But residents of West Fields Estate are very likely not to own cars, so I am always campaigning for better facilities for pedestrians and cyclists - as you may have noticed!

As Cllr Keith Chopping, Executive Member for Planning & Transport, pointed out in his prepared Answer, this isn't the first time I've asked a formal Question on this matter. However he continues to be unable to give a satisfactory answer. The excuse given is that the Council cannot trace the owner of the land across which the path will need to go. He claimed last week that they have 'just' managed to get in touch with the owner, probably as a result of my pestering him.

In my follow-up to this, I emphasised that Wimpey had presented this Council with a drawing made in March 2003 showing nothing but this path - before they even submitted their application to build 56 homes. This wasn't 'arm twisting' by the Council (hardly likely we'd try, with Wimpey the fourth biggest building firm in the UK!)

What I most want the Council to do is to send a 'legal letter' making it quite clear that we expect Wimpey to comply with its Planning Obligation, freely entered into. What I fear is that, unless we send such a letter soon, it will become too late to do anything. With most planning matters, there is a 'clock' ticking and if the right kind of letter isn't sent in time then a developer will get away without paying or in other respects complying with an Obligation. I haven't even had an answer to the Question "Is there a clock ticking in this case?"

It should not be the job of the Council to trace the land owner. Even that is a surely a job for the developer. Wimpey said four years ago that they were both able and willing to build this path. Let us just make them do it!

As for whether this path is needed, see for yourself from the map that is also on my web-page. It shows the Monkey Bridge, Waitrose, Northcroft Leisure Centre, local schools and other popular destinations for local journeys.

Local Access Forum members hear how the new RADAR access gates work

Thursday 21st June 2007

Gwen and Tony at last know some of the Outside Bodies that they will serve on as District councillors. For the following positions, their nominations were unopposed.

Gwen will serve as a Director of the local charity Home-Start West Berkshire, which recruits and trains volunteers to support families with children under 5 having problems coping. Martha Vickers, now a town councillor again, is already on the Home-Start management committee, in her capacity as a local health visitor.

Gwen is also on the local committee of Resolve, which the Council supports in its work providing a mediation service in neighbour disputes. And Gwen will be on West Berkshire Disability Alliance, a forum for users of Council services who have one or more disabilities.

Tony is serving on the Mid & West Berkshire Local Access Forum. The Forum happened to hold a meeting at Northcroft Leisure Centre earlier this month, when its members were shown the improvements to the Speen Moors Walk that Tony had secured with a successful bid for funds (£6,000) last year to make it more accessible to the disabled and those with push-chairs. Both Tony & Gwen attended the site visit (see photo and press release) before Tony stayed for the whole Forum meeting.

Tony is a qualified volunteer walks leader for a national holiday company (which doesn't operate in Berkshire) and he and Martha have walked most of the rights of way in West Berkshire and neighbouring parishes. He is passionate about the importance of urban dwellers - especially those without a car - having access to the countryside, which is an aspect of British life that is almost unique world-wide and was secured through the campaigning work of the early Ramblers Association in the 1930s.

By November this year, West Berkshire Council has to publish a Rights of Way Improvement Plan (RoWIP) setting out how it intends to make the local countryside more accessible. The Local Access Forum will advise the three councils (Reading and Wokingham are also covered by this Forum) on how best to meet the needs of local walkers, cyclists and horse-riders. As well as off-road Rights of Way, so-called Quiet Lanes can be created from minor roads which only see light local traffic.

If you have any thoughts about where you'd like to see improvements to countryside access, let Tony know. Tony and Gwen will report to you here about what they do on all these Outside Bodies, where they think it particularly affects Northcroft Ward. They will also report to the Council on District-wide matters.

Councillor Tony Vickers: 62 Craven Road, Newbury RG14 5NJ

Telephone: 01635 230046

Email: tvickers@westberks.gov.uk

Councillor Gwen Mason: 46 Chestnut Crescent, Newbury RG14 1LE

Telephone: 01635 35991

Email: gmason@westberks.gov.uk