Page 1080 - Reading Mercury

guinea pig teams chosen throughout Britain to give a trial to the Neighbourhood
Savings Scheme. The scheme is designed to cater for the millions of people who at
present buy the familiar 10p savings stamps from collectors who call at their homes
each week. The stamp is being phased out at the end of the year.
Under the new neighbourhood Scheme each team of three or two collectors and an
auditor are responsible for house to house collections of cash from a maximum of 20
people. At the end of each 13-week cycle, amounts accrued by each of the savers are
deposited in a National Savings Bank or Trustee Savings Bank account.
The Wokingham Team in the trial period collected a total of £142 from 18 members
with £15.50 as the maximum contribution.
At a celebration party organised by the Community Group of Wokingham District
Savings Committee at Wokingham cricket pavilion, Mr. Gordon Dupree, chairman of
the Berkshire National Savings Council said, “Mrs. Wanstall, Mrs Hucknell and Mrs.
Fish have shown that the Neighbourhood Scheme can replace the national savings
stamp very successfully and effectively. The national committee has now given the
go-ahead for neighbourhood schemes to be started throughout the country.”

th
Thur 29 April
STATION CROSSING GOES PUSH-BUTTON
New lifting barriers will be brought into use at the level crossing outside
Wokingham Station on Sunday. The barriers are push-button controlled from the
signal box, and will speed up the flow of road traffic in the area because they can be
operated more quickly than the gates they are replacing.
They are equipped with red and amber lights, and when a train is due a steady
amber light will show for five seconds, warning drivers and pedestrians that the
barriers are about to come down. At this point they must stop unless it would be
unsafe to do so. The twin red lights then start flashing, and in a few seconds the
barriers come down.
Pedestrian warning bells will ring between 7 am and 11 pm.
The new system has four barriers, two on each side of the railway track, which
consist of red and white poles and a collapsible metal “skirt.” When these are lowered
the railway is completely sealed off from the road.
When the barriers start to operate, the left hand one comes down first on both sides,
followed by the right hand one. Any traffic on the crossing and already past the
barriers when the lights begin to flash will have ample time to clear the crossing
before the other barriers descend.
The trains cannot go over the crossing until this sequence of events has been
completed, and when trains are not using the crossing, the barriers

th
Thur 6 May
DRILL HALL DEVELOPMENT
Wokingham District Council have engaged architects to prepare alternative schemes
based on the council’s development brief for the Drill Hall site at Denmark Street,
Wokingham. It will take about four months to prepare the alternative schemes which
will then be presented to the council and there will be a period of public consultation.
In the consultation period an informal meeting will take place with members of the
Wokingham Town Council, when proposals will be displayed and explained; there
will be a meeting with societies and the Chamber of Trade when the proposals will be
explained, and at a public meeting the proposals will also be on view and explained.

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