 Hub with pools, gym and much more almost built
A multi-million pound community building in Wokingham town with swimming pools, gym space, a hall for sports and cultural events and a new home for Wokingham library is almost ready to open.
Carnival Hub is our flagship project in our ongoing drive to improve leisure facilities, in which we've invested more than £50 million in schemes like the new Bulmershe Leisure Centre in Woodley, the new BXGFit gym in Wokingham town and more.
The new Wokingham Leisure Centre will have pools, a children's splash pad, a health suite with salt and steam room, studios with group cycling space, a café and a hall which can fit a seated audience of 400.
Our contractors have filled the main pool while the fitness studios on the first floor are finished and ready for exercise equipment to arrive. It's set to open in mid-July, a little later than expected but this is due to national labour and materials shortages.
For more information about the centre or membership, visit the Places Leisure website or pop into St Crispin's Leisure Centre in London Road, Wokingham, between 9am and 9pm during the week.
Anyone joining before it opens will enjoy access to our other centres including St Crispin's, Arborfield Green, Ryeish Green, Bulmershe and Loddon Valley.
 New road nears completion after hitting milestone
The North Wokingham Distributor Road, a major new road we're building to serve new homes in the area and relieve congestion in Wokingham town, is almost complete after the penultimate sections opened to traffic.
These are a new 1km carriageway to the west of Old Forest Road, which runs from the A329 Reading Road roundabout to a new junction with Old Forest Road, and a newly upgraded stretch of Old Forest Road and Toutley Road.
Both were built by our contractor Balfour Beatty, who installed a new 45m bridge crossing the railway line off Old Forest Road and realigned part of the existing Toutley Road to include an improved crossing over the Ashridge Stream.
This new section has an off-road cycle path to encourage active travel, improve local cycling and walking links and reduce vehicle journeys on the wider network.
We've also created a nature park with hundreds of new trees at Old Forest Meadows, alongside the nearby Ashridge Meadows (Eldridge Park), Kentwood Meadows and Keephatch Meadows.
Several road closures were needed, including a full closure of Toutley Road for much of last year, although we did everything we could to minimise this and we'd like to thank everyone living in this area for their patience.
 Major new roads in the borough: the next steps
The North Wokingham Distributor Road will run from the A329 Reading Road to the west of Wokingham town to the A329 London Road in the east. It also includes Queens Road, Bell Foundry Lane, Diamond Jubilee Way and Oak Avenue.
The only remaining section is a 550m stretch between Bell Foundry Lane and Dalley Road, which is accompanied by a new 4.5-hectare nature parks with two ponds, one of which is specially built to attract wildlife, plus footpaths and other habitats.
Work finished last year but it isn’t ready to open due to the volume of construction traffic from new homes being built nearby. We're working closely with the developer to confirm an opening date and will announce this as soon as possible.
Additionally, we're preparing to open the southern half of Nine Mile Ride Extension, a major road serving homes and businesses on our new community at Arborfield.
This section, built by Balfour Beatty, will join the completed northern half to open up a route between the A327 to the west and the existing Nine Mile Ride at its junction with Park Lane to the east. We'll let you know as soon as an opening date is confirmed.
As well as building new roads, we support and encourage more active and sustainable forms of travel such as walking, cycling and public transport through initiatives like our My Journey Wokingham team.
 Praise for 'pioneering' approach to building projects
Our new £2.4 million Dinton Activity Centre at Dinton Pastures Country Park in Hurst has helped us reach the finals of two awards that recognise our innovative and modern approach to building projects.
We've been shortlisted in the Client of the Year and Modern Methods of Construction categories of this year's Constructing Excellence Awards, celebrating the best projects and companies in London and the South-East.
We were nominated for Client of the Year by modular construction specialists Reds10, who worked with us on the centre and the £4.4 million expansion of Addington School in Woodley, which was completed in 2020.
Reds10 praised us as "true pioneers" for our commitment to the most cutting-edge and eco-friendly building methods. Both projects were partly completed off-site, reducing disruption and helping the environment by minimising vehicle trips.
HLM Architects, our project partner for Dinton, nominated it for Modern Methods of Construction. The building is our borough's first to achieve net-zero carbon emissions through measures like rooftop solar panels and windcatchers, low-energy LED lights and air source heat pumps.
We're honoured to be considered for these titles as well as the People's Choice Award, which is open to all finalists and decided by a public vote (please scroll to the bottom of linked pages above). The winners will be revealed later this month.
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