Page 984 - Reading Mercury

APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF GIBRALTAR
A new Governor of Gibraltar was announced by the Colonial Office on Thursday.
He is General Sir Gerald Lathbury, who lives at Locks House, Waterloo Road,
Wokingham, and who has been A.D.C. General to the Queen since 1962.
He succeeds General Sir Dudley Ward, who completes his term of office at the end
of July. Aged 58 Sir Gerald was educated at Wellington and Sandhurst. He was
commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and since
serving in the war, when he was mainly in command of parachute troops, his posts
have included Commandant, Staff College; C in C. East Africa and G.O.C. in C.
Eastern Command. From 1961 he has been quartermaster General, War Office.

TOWN CENTRE PLAN SHOULD SERVE NEEDS OF WOKINGHAM
The Wokingham Society have now published their views on the Berkshire county
Council proposals for the redevelopment of the town centre. If these views are
accepted at a general meeting to be held next Monday, they will be sent to the county
council.
Of paramount importance, claim the authors of the society report, is the by-passing
of through traffic. The town centre plan should serve the needs of the town, and not
those of through traffic. And, they urge, the interim stages must be wholly relevant to
the final plan in order that resources should not be wasted.
Proposals by the county council to use Rose Street as part of a clockwise traffic
circuit, together with Broad Street, Rectory Road and Wiltshire Road, are criticised.
The new traffic circuit, which would be constructed near All Saints’ Church does not
figure in its entirety in the final scheme. Objecting to this aspect of the plan, the
committee argue that it would entail alterations and demolitions to serve only the
needs of the interim stages.
Attacking the plan to use Rose Street as a main thoroughfare, as a short term
expedient, the committee express the fear that this will possibly lead to the destruction
of the “very exceptional character” of the street—one of the very few examples of a
closed street in the country. And they fear that a continuous flow of heavy traffic
would bring about the demise of the fine old period houses in the street.
They suggest, in order to provide early relief to the congestion in Peach Street and
Market Place, giving priority to the development of the southern sector of the
proposed distribution ring road. This, they claim, would obviate a considerable
amount of work on development serving only short-term needs.
The society regret the planners’ proposal to use Rectory Road as part of a
distribution ring. It would detract from one of the most attractive residential sections
of the town centre, they claim. Also criticised is the virtual severance of Shute End
and The Terrace, which would arise from the construction of another traffic circus at
that point. It would spoil the attractive approach to the town and, they say, the
isolation of the doctors’ surgery and police station in the centre of the proposed circus
would be inconvenient and aesthetically distasteful. They strongly recommend the
investigation of another ring road, at a greater radius from the town centre.
Another criticism is of the proposal to extend the new Elms Road into Broad Street,
which would necessitate the demolition of a house.
The society urges that, in order to relieve pressure on the main shopping centre,
comprehensive shopping facilities should be afforded in the peripheral residential
areas. And this, they say should be a condition of planning permission.

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