 Sign up for emergency alerts newsletter
We’ve launched a new emergency alerts email newsletter in response to Storm Eunice.
This will be used as required when we have extreme weather, potential flooding and emergency incidents which impact large parts of the borough.
We’ll send you the latest local advice on key services like roads, bins and where to go to get more help.
It will be the newsletter we use to provide multiple updates a day with key information when responding to incidents like the recent storms.. You can sign up using the button below.
 Councillors cover key issues for you
Our councillors are keen to talk to residents on issues we know they care about. Here are some of the topics we’ve covered recently with them:
- John Halsall, leader of the council, on writing to Michael Gove MP about our housing allocation for new homes required to be built
- John Halsall, leader of the council, on the start of a review of our election cycle meaning all councillors would be elected once every four years, rather than now where a third of our 54 councillors (18) is elected every year in a four-year cycle
- Cllr Laura Blumenthal, deputy executive member for anti-poverty, on the Hardship Alliance and our draft anti-poverty strategy
- Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, executive member for highways and transport, on what we’ve done and are doing to cut congestion
- Cllr Charles Margetts, executive member for health, wellbeing and adult services, on the opening of the Wokingham Charity and Community Hub
- A series of videos with Cllr Wayne Smith, executive member for planning and enforcement, answering your questions on the Local Plan Update
 Ruscombe Neighbourhood Plan consultation
Ruscombe Parish Council has prepared a Neighbourhood Plan with the help of the local community.
This sets out planning policies to guide the development and use of land in the parish up to 2036, to better reflect the wishes of the community and take greater account of what makes the area special to them.
We are now undertaking a six week consultation (Regulation 16) on the submitted plan, from Tuesday 8 February to 4.45pm on Friday 25 March 2022.
You can download a copy of the consultation response form, along with the draft plan and supporting documentation on our Neighbourhood planning page under the Ruscombe tab. Completed forms should be returned:
Alternatively you can simply send us your comments to either of the two contact addresses above.
Following the consultation all comments received will be sent to an independent examiner, who will consider whether the plan meets the necessary requirements to proceed to referendum and potential adoption.
You can take a look at all the consultation documents and find out more about the steps involved in producing a neighbourhood plan on our neighbourhood planning webpage.
 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 you can read more about in this newsletter, 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, 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.
 Gorse Ride regeneration takes next step
Progress continues on the regeneration of Gorse Ride in Finchampstead, with proposed changes to how the project will be funded.
The Gorse Ride regeneration project will replace 178 existing dated properties, with 249 new, energy efficient homes of which 136 will be social rented homes, 49 shared ownership and 64 private sale homes. This equates to 51 more affordable housing properties than currently provided on the development. At the start of the project there were 41 privately owned properties.
During the past five years, we’ve delivered just under 1,700 affordable homes in the borough primarily through our registered provider partnership. A further 300 affordable homes are expected to be delivered in 2022 and 2023.
The majority of residents affected by the first phase have already been rehoused, with many moving into Arnett Avenue, the first phase of the Gorse Ride Regeneration, which completed last summer. Work is also well underway to clear and prepare parts of the site ready for main construction in summer 2022.
The funding changes are to give greater flexibility to draw down financing as needed, as well as reducing the need to rely on external grants. It also helps counter the impact the rising cost of materials has had on the project and ensure it can be delivered in full.
These changes were agreed by the council’s executive last week, with the final decision by full council next month.
 New road for North Wokingham taking shape
Our North Wokingham Distributor Road, which will serve new homes being built in the area, is still on course for completion in late spring.
Balfour Beatty has just finished building a new bridge over the railway near the southern roundabout, at the end of the Winnersh Relief Road, and is now surfacing the road which crosses this.
The bridge will connect Reading Road with a new carriageway running parallel to the west of Old Forest Road. Contractors are also realigning a section of Toutley Road to the north and have built a culvert over the Emm Brook stream so they're ready to start surfacing this too.
Another section to the east near Ashridge Farm, which Balfour Beatty finished last year, remains closed for safety reasons as there is still a heavy volume of construction traffic from homes being built nearby.
This section, which also includes a new nature park with two ponds and an array of wildlife habitats, will open in the coming months. The North Wokingham Distributor Road will run from the Winnersh end of Reading Road to the junction of Oak Avenue and London Road, near Coppid Beech roundabout.
It's part of our £250 million major new roads scheme, which is funded by developer contributions.
 Successful eco-friendly plastic kerb trial
We installed plastic kerbing as part of a new cycle path on London Road in Wokingham last summer. Plastic kerbs are lightweight kerbstones made using 88 per cent recycled materials and are aesthetically similar to concrete kerbstones, however are designed not to chip or crack.
The London Road trial installed a 1.3km stretch of plastic kerbing. This length of kerb allowed a carbon saving of 40,555kg compared with installing traditional concrete kerbs. This included carbon savings through the supply chain as well as the manufacturing and transport related carbon and the raw materials.
We have recently undertaken a review on the efficiency of the plastic kerbs, looking at the cost, longevity and environmental benefits, and as a result of the positive outcomes, will be using plastic kerbs more frequently.
Concrete kerbs require lifting equipment and at least two workers to handle the kerbs as they are up to ten times heavier, whereas plastic kerb installation is less costly as there is no need for lifting equipment and the installation requires fewer workers and less time.
In addition, the difference in weight between plastic and concrete kerbs means that significantly fewer vehicles are required to transport the kerbing from the manufacturer to the site. In this trial the total weight of plastic kerbing was 7,522kg. The weight of the equivalent number of concrete kerbs would be 93,695kg.
 Cantley Park play area nearing completion
Our destination play area at Cantley Park is set to open to children of all ages in March, with a launch date to be confirmed soon.
The innovative new interactive play equipment, provided by Yalp, has been installed and surfacing has been laid, with only the final landscaping left to go.
The play area, funded by developers' contributions, will be wheelchair accessible and include kit designed to be as engaging as video gaming - but without time spent in front of a screen.
We know residents are keen to see this open as soon as possible, so we thank you for your patience and can't wait to announce more.
 View from the skies of our newest facilities
We’ve got some new video footage to showcase some of our borough’s newest facilities from a bird’s eye view.
The projects are part of our plans to strategically build homes in our borough to ensure our communities get the new infrastructure they need.
We’re proud to be building strong, well-connected, cohesive communities equipped with a rich variety of services and amenities. Take a look at examples of these facilities on YouTube via the links below.
 Independent businesses come to Wokingham
Shopping in Wokingham town centre is set to get even better with the recent opening of the Fiona Parry Boutique, offering a great range of ladies fashion, at Elms Walk and the announcement that local zero waste business Maya’s Refillables will soon be moving to a new unit at Peach Place.
These fantastic new retailers join more than 35 businesses who have already located to Wokingham Borough Council’s regeneration developments since December 2019, the majority of which are independent businesses or boutiques.
The new Fiona Parry Boutique store, located near Starbucks on Elms Walk, offers an amazing collection of stylish women’s clothing and accessories. Whether you are looking for a complete outfit for a night on the town, or the relaxed look with some new jeans and a new top there’s a great mix to check out and see.
Maya’s Refillables are already a favourite with local residents, having traded at Wokingham and Woodley Markets since 2019. Maya is passionate about sustainability and the new zero waste store will help local residents and businesses shop greener, reducing their single-plastic waste by buying their products in containers which can be refilled again and again.
 Volunteers plant hazel trees at Keephatch Meadow
This month, the Countryside team were helped by volunteers from the Mohanji ACT Foundation at Keephatch Meadows in Wokingham.
The group worked together to plant over 200 hazel trees in a small clearing behind existing established trees, in order to extend the woodland habitat and reinstate trees where there was once ancient woodland.
Each of the saplings was planted with a protective tree tube and stake, repurposed from previous planting projects on the site, and surrounded with a ring of bark mulch to give them the best chance of surviving and growing into healthy trees.
Keephatch Meadows is a nature park, located on Binfield Road in Wokingham. The site consists of three ponds, areas of open meadow, ancient woodland, and newly planted trees, and has a rough-surfaced path meandering through around the site. There is plenty of car parking for visitors, with benches around the site.
If you would like to get involved in the countryside volunteer programme, visit our website.
 Studio scheme preparing for action
Preliminary ground works have now started on Shinfield Studios' new Creative Media Hub, a world-class film and television studio which we awarded planning permission last year and is expected to open next year.
The 85,000 sq m complex is being built on part of the Thames Valley Science and Innovation Park to the south of the M4, plus additional land to the north and south of Cutbush Lane.
It has already confirmed Disney as its first client and will host major international productions across 18 film stages and eight workshops with additional offices and other facilities.
The hub, a joint venture with the University of Reading, will create 1,500 new jobs with a similar figure arising from indirect employment generated by its use.
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