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Traffic and Travel

Wokingham Borough Connect

Giving you the power

We have just launched a consultation giving you the opportunity to have your say on our draft Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Strategy.

As of 2022 nearly 3,000 vehicles in the borough were electric, and in just over a decade, the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned. We want to make sure that the infrastructure is there to allow you to power up.

We've already secured over £700,000 of funding and installed nearly 160 chargepoints, with more in the pipeline.

As well as setting out where we will prioritise chargepoints - such as in areas where there are lower levels of off-street parking, or that are close to other amenities - the strategy will be key to us getting further grants to fund the roll-out.

Help us to future-proof the network, break down barriers of EV ownership and move towards more sustainable travel by telling us your priorities for our new strategy.

Footway maintenance

Our footway maintenance programme started earlier this month with ten sites already complete and nearly 20 in progress or planned between now and the end of October.

The programme forms part of our planned maintenance works that are carried out each year as part of our multi-million pound investment in our highways network.

This is separate from ongoing maintenance that takes place when we are made aware of issues, such as through reports from the public.

Our footway maintenance programme uses a slurry seal, which is a protective seal that extends the life of footways.

It's a thin, tough layer of asphalt emulsion blended with finely crushed stone for traction - a cost-effective way of renewing the pavement surface and sealing minor cracks and other irregularities.

As with all works on our highway network, certain weather conditions are required for materials to be applied and properly set. This means that while we do have a schedule for planned works these may need to change to take account of bad weather.

Links you might find useful:

• Our current planned footways work for the year
• More about our annual highways maintenance programme
• How decisions are made about road maintenance
• How to contact us to report a problem with highways

Park and Ride for a pound

Have you taken advantage of the £1 park and ride offer yet?

Whether you are a regular visitor to Reading such as for work or education, or less frequent such as hospital appointments or socialising, using the park and ride has lots of benefits, including:

• Saving money on parking, fuel and wear and tear on your car
• Beating the queues with dedicated bus lanes
• Taking the stress out of sitting in traffic jams and finding parking spaces
• Reduce your own carbon footprint and pollution in congested areas

About the service

Last month a weekday service returned to Winnersh Triangle park and the reintroductory offer to park and ride for £1 per person is still available.

The service runs four times an hour on weekdays (6.45am to 6pm) and Saturdays (8am to 6pm). The offer has been extended to Mereoak park and ride and, in part, to Thames Valley park and ride.

Winnersh Triangle park and ride: register your number plate at car park machines and pay on the bus as normal. Tickets cost £1 per person, including parking.

Mereoak park and ride: Park as normal (you don't need to register your vehicle) and pay on the bus as normal. Tickets cost £1 per person, including parking.

Thames Valley Business Park park and ride: Park and pay for your parking as normal. Tickets cost £1 per person, excluding parking.

How the service is funded

The return of the park and ride from Winnersh has been subsidised by grants awarded to councils by the Department for Transport. We've used some of ours to subsidise the service, while Reading Borough Council have used some of theirs to offer discounted tickets.

However, its ongoing success will rely on customers - please use so we don't lose it.

Final chance to win prizes

It's the final few days of Love to Ride's annual Cycle September challenge and there are still chances for you to join nearly 400 local people who are in it to win it.

So far, participants from Wokingham Borough have logged over 40,000 miles saving over 5,000lb of C02, at the same time earning points to be in with winning a prizes.

All you have to do is register and log your trips, which you can do all year round as part of the Love to Ride campaign, but there are loads of extra rewards for doing it in September.

This year there is a £1,000 bike from Berkshire Bikes to be won for Wokingham Borough participants in Cycle September, as well as a grand cash prize of £2,000 and a prize draw for those who encourage others to sign up.

There are also workplace prizes as well as goodies like sweaters, T-shirts and more.

You can log journeys and win points with the Love to Ride app (available for Apple or Android devices) or by syncing it to Strava or MapMyRide, and there are extra points for getting your friends and family on board!

A329M overnight closures

The A329(M) will be closed in both directions between the M4 slip roads and Winnersh junctions from 8pm on 3 October to 6am on 4 October to carry out maintenance such as grass cutting and litter-picking.

For diversion routes please follow links below:

• Bracknell-bound
• Reading-bound

The car park at Station Road in Earley will be closed on the following dates for Network Rail to carry out essential works:

• 6am on 4 October to 6pm on 7 October
• 6am on 9 November to 6pm on 11 November

Alternative parking is available at Winnersh Park and Ride.

Upcoming roadworks

Keeping up to date

• For planned and emergency roadworks, follow our Twitter and Facebook pages 
• To find out about roadworks near you, visit One.network
• For active and sustainable travel, including events, training and resources, visit MyJourney Wokingham 
• Visit our major projects page for plans and updates
• For information on re-surfacing and reactive carriageway repairs visit our pothole and road repairs page 
• You can report any issues with roads and streets online, including street lights, problems with traffic lights, potholes, damaged street furniture, problems with road markings and removal of dead animals
• You can track the progress of any issue you have reported with your reference number
• On our parking and permits page, you can find information including car parks and costs around the borough, resident parking permits, park and ride services and appealing a parking fine
• Our transport and travel page includes information on applying for a senior citizen or disabled person's bus and train pass and local public transport information
• The blue parking badges page has information on applying for, using, replacing and returning your blue badge