Bell Tower Community Association

Addison Road residents will notice a small and long-awaited change. SSE contractors visited today and have started to upgrade the street’s Victorian cast iron lamp posts to take LED lanterns after a long campaign to save them.

As well as a new lantern the lamp posts are being fitted with a new swan neck and a small isolating bollard nearby. We understand that they are due to be repainted soon as well, and the remaining cast iron lamp posts in York Road and Newport Road are due to be refurbished this summer.

All the cast iron lamp posts in Addison Road were made in foundries in Reading, some of which were by the Thames right next to our area. These lamp posts are likely be originals from about 1900 when the street was built – after refurbishment we look forward to seeing them working for many more years to come.

The Bell Tower Community Association has been working on getting a special designation to reflect the area’s Victorian character. We are pleased to announce that we have been able to get a stage further with this recognition.

Many towns, particularly in south-east England, have Local Areas of Special Character (LASC) or similar designations; examples of these are in Kingston, Woking and Croydon. These areas are not quite eligible to be designated as conservation areas but have a character that is considered worth preserving.

At present Reading does not have any such areas, but we have now succeeded in getting the council on board and have helped draft a formal planning document that councillors will consider later this year.
We hope the LASC document will be adopted by the council into its planning policy, at which point two areas will initially be proposed for LASC status – the Caversham Road area, which includes the Bell Tower area, and Northcourt Avenue, near the university. It is likely that further areas will be suggested later.

When an LASC is proposed an appraisal document is submitted describing the character of the area.
While this has less statutory weight than a conservation area appraisal, the LASC appraisal provides a useful reference document for planning officers when considering applications in the area and nearby, to help determine whether a proposed development is in keeping with the area’s character. For example, planning officers might ask for computer-generated views of a proposed large-scale development from viewpoints in the LASC which might otherwise not be required.

We have also been working on an LASC appraisal document for the Caversham Road area, and hope to provide an update on the progress of this project later this year once the council has agreed in principle to the introduction of LASCs in Reading. In the meantime here is a presentation given by Bell Tower member Mary Neale on LASCs and the area’s Victorian character.

A planning application has been submitted for a gas-fired micro power station in Cardiff Road, near the Cow Lane end. The proposal is for two generators housed in containers similar to those in the photo.

The Bell Tower Community Association has concerns about the potential for additional noise and pollution from the plant. The air quality report shows a measurable increase in NO2 levels over an area extending as far as Caversham Road, and this part of Reading is already a designated Air Quality Management area because of its high levels of pollution. We are also not sure about noise levels for residents of Cardiff Road, some of whom are less than 300 metres from the site.

We recommend looking at the planning application on the council’s website and giving your views using the online feedback form. You can find details and give feedback at planning.reading.gov.uk/fastweb_PL/detail.asp?AltRef=182242.