Page 971 - Reading Mercury

Appearing for Mr. Palmer, Mr. E. Blain, Q.C., said that the building could not be
pulled down without the consent of the Minister of Housing
In December 1960, outline permission was given for the conversion of the existing
club into the shop, storage room, living accommodation and offices as required. His
client wanted to pull down the building because it could not be converted owing to the
present elevation.

th
Sat 6 July
WOKINGHAM ALMSHOUSES
Scheme for rebuilding
Trustees of the Wokingham United Charities are now awaiting confirmation of a
scheme drawn up by the Charity Commissioners which will enable them to sell land
for building at Hatch Ride, Crowthorne. With money by this sale, likely to be in
excess of £20,000, the trustees would like to buy a site for the rebuilding of the
existing Westende Almshouses in Peach Street. But they cannot do this and will have
to borrow their “own” money back from the Commissioners and pay interest on it.
The scheme to rebuild the almshouses is closely linked with the improvements in
Peach Street. The County Council want the land on which the present almshouses
stand and have agreed to build or meet the cost of new ones on a different site. At one
time it was planned to rebuild at the rear of the present houses, but this land is now
considered to be too valuable for this type of development and the trustees are having
to seek another site.
Some time ago the trustees sold a number of houses in the London Road to the
Borough Council for about £1,000. These houses had formed an investment and the
original plan was for the rents of these to provide the funds to keep the almshouses in
good repair. But latterly these rents have proved insufficient to keep their own houses
in repair. With the proceeds of this sale, the trustees had hoped to finance the repairs
to another house which they owned but in fact had to hand the £1,000 over to the
Charity Commissioners and then borrow back £500 which they are still repaying.
This week the clerk to the trustees, Mr. W.E. Miller, said that they were hoping to
sell the Hatch Ride land as soon as possible and would then put the rebuilding
programme in hand. At the moment, one almshouse was unoccupied as it was in a
poor state of repair and the present situation did not justify money being spent on it.

th
Sat 13 July
GO-AHEAD FOR PART ONE OF WOKINGHAM CIVIC CENTRE SCHEME
Wokingham Town Council’s plans for the first stage of the scheme for their new
municipal offices on The Elms open space at Wellington Road, Wokingham, have
been approved by the Berkshire County Planning Committee. The scheme comprises
a three-storey office block. The building has a modern styling with a flat roof and a
finish consisting of blue-brown brindled facing bricks with black vitrolite panels with
courses of tooled precast concrete.
The County Planning Committee stated that another major application had been
received for the development of land in the same area. This was for the erection of a
coach station for Brimblecombe Brothers Ltd.

th
Sat 5 Oct
WITH MAYOR’S LETTER
Wokingham’s mace-bearer, Mr. C.A. Nibbs, left on Tuesday to see relatives in
Toronto, Canada, and took with him a letter of greeting from the Mayor to the mayor

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