New ward boundaries proposed
Ward boundaries and councillor allocations are under review in Reading. Since the town’s population has been increasing faster than the national average, it has been proposed that the town will have two extra councillors, bringing the total to 48; to accommodate the new council seats and even out ward populations the ward map will have to be redrawn. Abbey ward, in particular, is projected to grow to over 50% more than Reading’s average ward population by 2025 because of the proliferation of new developments.
Our area could end up in a new Thames ward (unrelated to the existing ward with the same name); most of this ward would be the area between the main railway line and the Thames, with a small part of Lower Caversham and the area around Kenavon Drive. The Bell Tower Community Association is broadly in agreement with the proposal, as it groups together areas of similar character.
The consultation for the proposed boundaries is now open – details of the new boundaries and the opportunity to make comments are at consultation.lgbce.org.uk. The deadline for submissions is 13 April 2020.
It does not seem desirable that an established ward should be totally and inappropriately relocated, with no retained links to its previous location.
The proposed Thames Ward should be renamed Thameside, or maybe the River ward.
The proposed voters calculation seems to ignore a major tranche of planned development, and voter count may be understated by 2000 votes in high rise developments in Napier Road and Vastern Road within 5 years.
The inbalance of voter equality might be offset if for five years only two Councillors represented this new ward.