Carol singing – Tuesday 20 December
New Hope’s community carol singing will be on Tuesday 20 December. Come along to the New Hope Centre at 7.00pm for a tour round the area, with refreshments afterwards. All welcome.
School to revise traffic plan
Local school changes traffic plan after Bell Tower objections.
E P Collier School has changed its plan to move the “School Keep Clear” signs away from the entrances to the nursery and playground on York Road following objections from Bell Tower.
The Bell Tower Community Association objected to Reading Borough Council’s traffic management sub-committee and in the local press after the subcommittee approved the changes despite Bell Tower pointing out that the council officer had submitted a plan that did not show the new entrances.
The main thrust of Bell Tower’s objections was that the creation of drop zones facilitates taking children to school by car and that more traffic would inevitably raise the risk of accidents. This also flies in the face of the council’s own stated policy of discouraging car use on the school run.
The extension of double-yellow lines in the area around the school will result in the reduction of already limited residents’ parking space. One piece of good news is that with the completion of the school car park, the residents’ parking permits issued to some school staff have now been withdrawn.
Have your say on council tax changes
Reading Borough Council has opened two consultations on proposed changes to council tax – one affecting levels for properties qualifying for discounts and the other changing levels of council tax relief.
It is proposed that the council tax discount scheme will be removed for many empty properties, so that owners would have to pay full council tax on them when unoccupied. The council tax relief changes affect the qualifying criteria and maximum level of benefit available.
Everyone who lives, works or studies in the borough of Reading is welcome to comment on these consultations, regardless of whether they are affected by the changes.
Details and online response forms at https://consult.reading.gov.uk/. The deadline for comments is 28 December 2016.
Photo: Andrew Smith
Taxing times!
We held our autumn quiz on Saturday 29 October at New Hope – a gathering of garrulous quiz fans had a merry time tussling with the mix of general and specialist rounds from quizmaster Rod Plinston. The £50 first prize was won by a single point by the team of Sandie and Phil Gill and friends. At half time everyone was fed by the excellent service of a fish and chip supper.
Please look out for the next of these well-attended events and join in – our next quiz will be held in spring 2017. Many thanks to Rod for presiding and to Richard for organising the catering.
New venue for the Big Skip
The Big Skip was back in October at a new venue, as we can no longer use the school playground after the building work. We held the event at 50 Milford Road, on the industrial estate.
It was a great opportunity for householders to dispose of their bulky waste, and we also had the chance to do a bit of ad-hoc gardening, trimming some overhanging tree branches that were blocking the pavement in Addison Road.
As usual the skip was kindly sponsored by Reading Festival organisers Festival Republic. Many thanks also to Mel Maxwell of Sandbag Ltd for use of the site. We hope to be back for another tidy-up day in the same place next summer.
Newport Road street party 2016
Saturday 11 June 2016 – another excellent street party for the Big Lunch weekend! We were worried about the weather for the first time this year, but fortunately got away with only a few spots of rain while areas around Reading had downpours. New for this year were Splat the Rat, Readipop’s drumming workshop and our first live music courtesy of Joy & Christie and the Bell Tower Shower! Plenty of activities for the kids with loads of help from New Hope and another fiendish quiz courtesy of Rod – with prizes provided by the Standard Tandoori. Many thanks to everyone who helped and the residents of Newport Road for hosting. And special thanks to Readipop for their support in getting our live music going, and to the Moderation for the delicious free barbecue food and Thai curry.
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- Another great chance for everyone in the area to get together, with about 150 people coming along again this year.
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- The ever-popular face painting was back…
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- …and loads of activities.
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- Everyone loves a sand pit…
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- …and this little enterprise was doing really well too!
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- Here’s Erin, winner of the cake baking competition, with her fabulous chocolate fudge cake.
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- New for this year and really popular was Splat the Rat…
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- …and we had a drumming workshop for small and big kids alike, brought to us by Readipop.
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- We’ve talked about putting on live music for years – and we’ve finally done it! Here are Joy and Christie with some lovely songs…
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- …and the infamous Bell Tower Shower with a few crowd pleasers!
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- Another fantastic street party – many thanks to everyone who came along and here’s to another great party next year!