Reading Liberal Democrats

Cllr Ricky Duveen, the Lib Dem Spokesperson on Transport, today outlined his party’s response to the Briscoe Commission.

Cllr Duveen emphasised that the Lib Dems had engaged wholeheartedly with the work of the Commission since it was set up. They had sent in a comprehensive list of suggestions for dealing with congestion in Reading, many of which had been adopted by the Commission.

‘Unlike the Tories whose central plank seems to be building a new road to bring more traffic in to the town centre, we do need to find new and innovative ways of dealing with road congestion which is the biggest threat to the town’s future development.’

The Briscoe Report does set out the need for one major scheme, the Third Thames Bridge but steers clear of making any recommendations for solving the key bottleneck of Cemetery Junction where there is little consensus as yet. It does support Lib Dem ideas for expanding Park and Ride schemes to cover all major access routes into the town, for better ticketing options for bus users and for improving cycling and pedestrian routes. It also very clearly buries the one-way IDR scheme.

The Briscoe Report sets out two very key issues that need to be set out for the people of Reading as it is they who must decide on any eventual solutions.

Firstly, there is an unwelcome fact to address in that all the major schemes for reducing traffic congestion in Reading rely on the co-operation of neighbouring authorities who have differing priorities. Our council does not have a good track record on joint schemes, although the current work at Junction 11 is progressing well. The Third Thames Bridge has been talked about for 30 years with very little to show for it. There is clearly a need for a Traffic Authority of some sort that will take a regional view of the transport infrastructure in the Thames Valley as a whole and will have the power to push through such schemes if they can be shown to bring major benefits to the region as a whole. Such an authority would, in our view, also require a democratic mandate from the people of the Thames Valley, a government appointed quango will simply not do.

Secondly, the Report states that road charging in some form will be part of the solution to Reading’s traffic congestion. The Lib Dems have for some time now been promoting the idea of charging lorries using our town as a through route and causing a lot of the congestion, not to mention air pollution and wear and tear to our roads. We already have the technology to introduce such a scheme and we need to put the case to local residents and businesses now. If we can convince them that this is key factor in reducing congestion then we can go forward and put together a fully costed proposal for the people of Reading to make the final decision. It may be that taking a large number of lorries off our roads will be enough to ease the worst of our traffic problems and avoid the need to bring in further charging, but we need a full and open debate on road charging now and that is one of the key findings of the Briscoe report. We welcome this opportunity to engage with local people on such a vital issue.

Cllr Duveen re-iterated that politicians of all parties now had the task of engaging with local residents and setting out the case for schemes to combat congestion and to ensure that the town continues to thrive economically. ‘I look forward to a lively debate following the excellent work of the Briscoe Commission. We have always said that any major scheme will need the support of the people of Reading and we need to win their backing before imposing grand ideas such as the one-way IDR.’

Editor’s Note
Follow this link to the Briscoe Report page Independent Commission reports