 Help us get funding for travel improvements
We want your views on a new strategy that'll help us get funding to improve local walking and cycling routes as well as bus services, roads and more.
We’re consulting on our revised Local Transport Plan, a “big picture” strategy that aims to make all forms of travel healthier, safer and more sustainable.
The plan should make it easier for you to walk, cycle or take public transport and will help us get funding for new infrastructure, among other improvements.
It also recognises that active travel can’t always replace driving, and should help attract external funding for more electric vehicle chargepoints in areas where they're needed most.
It would sit alongside other documents like our Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP), which supports things like our plans for a new active travel link from Winnersh to Wokingham town.
Please take time to share your thoughts before Friday, 23 February.
Welcome to your first edition of Infrastructure News in 2024, which now returns to its regular four-weekly schedule following a break over Christmas. Your next edition comes out on 14 February. Don't forget to sign up for other newsletters on topics you might be interested in!
 Safer and more welcoming heart for village
Works to improve California Cross in Finchampstead will start in about a month, bringing a sense of community to the village centre and making it safer.
The improvements, which are being funded by developers and were drawn up following public consultation, give priority to pedestrians, cyclists and other non-motorists while improving the look of the area.
The design features aspects which have successfully worked in other areas and have won awards. It will include:
- Extra pedestrian crossings raised to pavement level, and with contrasting designs to make them highly visible
- Crossing points at right angles, which pedestrians with impaired vision may prefer to use
- Re-designed parking at Avery Corner to prioritise pedestrians and improve access to the nearby primary school
- Widened car park access, with the entrance and exit switching places
- Cosmetic improvements including new streetlights, planting and bollards, and totems designed by Nine Mile Ride School and Gorse Ride School pupils
 Our roads are simply (among) the best!
Roads in Wokingham Borough were among the best maintained in the country in the last year, according to recent figures from the Department for Transport (DfT).
The DfT's annual road conditions statistics provide a range of data, like how much of the road network has undergone maintenance work and how much should be considered for maintenance work in future.
The statistics show we carried out maintenance on about nine per cent of our A roads, almost double the national average of about five per cent.
For non-A roads, we carried out work on 4.5 per cent, again almost double the national average of about 2.5 per cent.
Maintenance data is available for 119 local authorities for A roads and 118 local authorities for non-A roads, putting us well into the top 20.
We raised more than £34.8 million in developer funding towards new infrastructure in the 2022/23 financial year, including more than £9.9 million from the Community Infrastructure Levy.
During that year, we invested developer contributions in a range of projects including schools, bus services, local amenities and more. We'll announce more about this in next month's Infrastructure News.
 A happy start at growing new SEND centre
Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are settling in at the new Addington Early Years Centre, which offers a small bespoke learning environment for children from three to eight years old.
The centre, on the site of the old Farley Hill Primary School near Arborfield Green, is run by Addington Special School in Woodley. It has initially opened to 16 new pupils who are settling well into spaces adapted for their needs.
A large team of staff are on hand to support the children, helping them to feel safe and settled, and dedicated family support is also available.
The next phase is expected to be ready by September 2024, which will increase the number of places to a maximum of 40 and will include three more classrooms.
We want to understand how our SEND improvement programme is helping children and families. If you use these services, please take our survey.
 School and community to share use of St Crispin's
St Crispin’s Leisure Centre off London Road, in Wokingham town, is going to be revamped for education and community use.
Use of the centre had been declining since the pandemic and the nearby opening of Wokingham Leisure Centre at Carnival Hub so it was becoming unviable.
It'll be repurposed to provide much-needed extra places at St Crispin's secondary school but will keep serving residents too. The centre will be leased to the Circle Trust, which runs the school, to add 55 more Year 7 places next year and beyond.
The building will be partly converted into classrooms but some community use, including sports like squash, will remain outside school hours. This will be in partnership with Places Leisure, which runs our leisure centres.
The news follows a consultation which highlighted the importance of keeping some community use and we thank everyone who gave their views.
 New homes will be tip-top for energy efficiency
A major milestone in the regeneration of Gorse Ride in Finchampstead has been celebrated with 16 new houses reaching full construction height.
Wokingham Borough Deputy Mayor Cllr Adrian Mather was joined by our representatives, as well as contractor Wates and Steve Bowers, chair of the Gorse Ride Steering Group, at a topping-out ceremony.
This is one of our flagship housing projects and will provide 249 modern homes, a massive 74 per cent of which will be affordable to meet growing local demand.
Four will be designed to meet particular needs of people moving into them, with facilities like wheelchair access or level access showers.
The new homes are energy efficient with high levels of insulation and low carbon innovations like air source heat pumps, which help reduce emissions and make them more affordable to heat.
As well as helping towards our climate emergency goals, this will help the people living in the housing to offset rising fuel costs.
 Sunny outlook as solar farm moves forward
Plans for our first solar farm near Barkham are looking bright, following an official grid connection offer from Scottish and Southern Electric Networks (SSEN).
The offer confirms the farm could start feeding power into the grid by August 2026, more than a decade earlier than the 2037 we were advised of in March this year. This is a significant and positive step forward in delivering the project.
The solar farm, once up and running, could generate enough green renewable energy to power thousands of homes and businesses.
As well as supporting the carbon reduction targets in our climate emergency action plan, the project will help raise income by selling power generated into the grid.
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