 Give your view on new cycleways and anti-poverty
We’ve removed the need to sign up to give us responses on Engage Wokingham Borough, our platform for you to give feedback on our services. This is based on feedback from users and to make it easier to give us your views.
We currently have a number of consultations open for you to respond to. These include:
The information we gather is used to help us make better decisions and tailor our services to the needs and desires of our residents and businesses.
We'd still encourage you to sign up if you want to, it means you can keep up to date on projects which matter to you and means you can have ongoing input across the issues and areas you care about.
 Schoolchildren help open new road
Pupils at Floreat Montague Park Primary School in Wokingham have learned more about the community benefits of a major road which we recently opened. They visited the Eastern Gateway, the newest section of our South Wokingham Distributor Road.
The road includes an off-road cycle path to encourage active travel and is among the new infrastructure for our major development of 2,500 new homes at South Wokingham. It was funded largely through housing developers’ contributions with additional funding by the Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
It includes a new bridge over the railway which links William Heelas Way to a new roundabout on Waterloo Road. The existing level crossing further north on Waterloo Road will be permanently shut now that a safer alternative is available and this will encourage more people to travel on foot or by bike, reducing vehicle trips and improving air quality.
The finished distributor road will include a longer central section to serve planned new homes, which will run across land to the west and join Finchampstead Road near the Tesco superstore. Access will be via the planned Western Gateway, which we hope to start work on as soon as we can.
We’re also close to finishing our North Wokingham Distributor Road, which will relieve congestion and improve access in this new community, as well as the extension of Nine Mile Ride at Arborfield and Finchampstead.
 New community hub opened to house charities
The Wokingham Charity and Community Hub has been officially opened. Wokingham Borough Mayor Cllr Keith Baker MBE cut the ribbon on the new centre last week, which is the new home for 10 charities and organisations.
He was given a tour of the almost 6,000 sq ft new facility in Wokingham town centre, which is at Waterford House and its reception is now open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.
The charities now calling the hub home include Involve (which is managing the hub), Cranstoun Wokingham, Home Start Wokingham District, Health Watch Wokingham Borough, The Link Visiting Scheme, Mind in Berkshire, CLASP, Promise Inclusion (Pinc), Wokingham Volunteer Centre, Wokingham Foodbank (moving in over the next few weeks) and Citizen’s Advice Wokingham, which was already located at Waterford House on the second floor.
On top of this, we’ve boosted our adult social care prevention programme working with the voluntary, community and faith sector (VCFS) by an additional £280,000 from this year to £2.1million in 2022/23.
These will support residents to improve their health and wellbeing and aims to prevent, reduce and delay the need for formal care and support.
 Spotlight on new green space - Buckhurst Meadow
This 12.5-hectare beauty spot, formerly in the grounds of the old Buckhurst Farm and now part of our South Wokingham major development, was landscaped by developer David Wilson Homes as a condition of its planning permission for new housing at Montague Park.
We're currently in talks about taking over its management and look forward to announcing more soon.
Buckhurst Meadow has grown into a thriving, popular public green space and boasts a community orchard, sustainably surfaced footpaths including a 1.7km circular walk and meadows and copses attracting all sorts of wildlife including birds, dragonflies and amphibians.
The Thames Basin Heaths Partnership says it is a nicely maturing meadow with a treasure trove of habitats – and an ideal visit for nature lovers with a beautiful mosaic of grasses, wildflowers, native trees and ponds.
The partnership has singled out the site’s reedbed as a particular highlight, adding that the surfaced paths allow good access at all times of year and the site offers plenty of space for dogs. Free parking, including disabled spaces, is available off William Heelas Way, to the north of Drew Crescent.
Give your views on taxi fare increase
We’re asking for your views on a proposal to increase taxi fares for the first time since 2010. The proposal is a request by the Licensed Hackney Carriages (taxis) and looks to increase the fares for taxis to reflect increases in the cost of living.
The proposed changes are bringing forward the time late evening tariffs apply from 11pm to 10.30pm, increasing the charging rate, increasing the charge for an extra passenger and increasing the cost if a taxi needs to be cleaned because of a passenger.
Responses to the consultation can be sent via email to licensing@wokingham.gov.uk or via post to the Public Protection Partnership, Theale Library, Church Street, Theale, Berkshire, RG7 5BZ. The consultation is open until 16 February.
The proposed changes are available by visiting the Public Protection Partnership consultation webpages. More details can be found in the Wokingham Borough Council consultation on hackney carriage tariffs (PDF document).
What you might have missed
Every update we sent in the last week can be found in the list below:
If you'd like to sign up for more updates from us, such as these topics in the list above, just use the button below.
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