Page 1053 - Reading Mercury

Committee are to get further reports on both the question of a detection system and on
school inspections.

WOKINGHAM FAREWELL
The last Mayor of Wokingham, Ald. Stanley Bowyer said at a reception on
Tuesday: “At midnight on Sunday the axe falls on the Borough and it will be no
more.”
He was talking to representatives of all organisations in the Borough to fellow
members of the Council and special guests, the High Steward of Wokingham, Major
John Wills and Wokingham’s Member of Parliament, Mr. William van Straubenzee.
The event is a farewell party for our dear old Borough” He described the change
made though local government reorganisation as a sad and tragic occasion.
He thanked the Town Clerk, Mr. Nigel Butler, and all other Town Hall officials for
their work for Wokingham and personally thanked Council members both present and
former with whom he had served for the past 43 years.
During the evening, Mr. Anthony Cross, President of the Wokingham Society,
presented the Mayor with a surprise gift of two prints of old Wokingham.

Thur 11th April
RESIDENTS AMAZED AT WOOSEHILL DECISION
The announcement that residential development is to be allowed at Woosehill has
caused great concern in Wokingham. County Cllr. K.W. Johnson said, “I am
extremely disappointed by the Minister’s decision to release the Woosehill area for
residential development at this time. I was entirely in agreement with the Wokingham
Borough Council’s objections voiced at the public inquiry, and I would have thought
the decision would at least have been held over until the preliminary results of the
recent Transportation Survey, expected about June this year, are available.
“In any event it seems that the decision on such a major item has been made by the
new Minister in indecent haste so soon after taking office. We must try now to ensure
that provision of the infrastructure (schools, sewage and waste disposal, open space
etc.) necessary to support this development is adequately made, with assistance from
Central Government to minimise the financial impact upon local residents. In
particular we look to early provision of the Inner Distribution Road (I.D.R.), and
County Cllr. Lewis Moss and myself are actively pursuing this objective at Shire Hall.
In my opinion the decision also makes provision of a permanent link on to the
A329M inevitable, probably at or near the previously proposed site of the Ashridge
Interchange, with the consequent reorganisation of the adjacent local roads to feed
into the I.D.R. Without such provisions the situation in Wokingham will be
intolerable long before the development is complete.”
The Minister’s statement that local residents would not be affected by the enormous
increase to the population was greeted with amazement. The effect on the medical
service was quoted as one instance. A Medical Centre is included in the plans for
Woosehill but, it was pointed out, this will not bring more available hospital beds or
staff in the Reading and Ascot hospitals that serve Wokingham. Nor will it ease the
strain on local General Practitioners whose lists are already filled to capacity.
Roads already overcrowded will be chaotic through the centre of Wokingham and
the Reading Road in particular will be very much affected as there is to be only one
exit from the Woosehill development on to a major road and it will be on to this road.
Commuters expecting to find travel to and from London will experience long
delays. The M4 is often disrupted by accidents and the Chiswick fly-over causes

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