Reading Liberal Democrats

Reading Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson, Cllr Ricky Duveen, has welcomed the latest government initiative to charge utility companies for digging up roads. Under plans announced last week by Lib Dem Transport Minister Norman Baker the utility companies will be forced to rent the road space that they want to dig up at peak times.

Ricky said ‘by charging the utilities up to £2,500 a day for working on the roads at peak times the government hopes that they will timetable more such works for off peak times and weekends rather than disrupt rush hour traffic. With roadworks congestion costing the country £4bn every year, a charging regime makes sense.’

A number of experimental permit schemes are already in operation in London and elsewhere. This new measure is intended for areas where permits are not working as anticipated to reduce congestion.

Liberal Democrats in Reading have called into question Council figures showing that bus lane fines have sky-rocketed under the latest Labour administration.

Labour’s assault upon Reading motorists was recently revealed in a Council report showing that the amount of bus lane fines issued under the Labour-run Council has risen by as much as 277%.

Reading residents have also expressed alarm to local Liberal Democrats over the level of contempt shown for voters by the Labour Lead Councillor for Transport after he called motorists “stupid”.

Whilst in coalition locally, Liberal Democrats tried to create a sustainable and fair budget, not one built upon punishing motorists as an easy target and in effect introducing congestion charging by the back door.

What Labour refuse to admit is that they are using exorbitant fines for motorists – already hit hard with rising petrol prices – to plug gaps in a balanced budget which they inherited from the previous coalition, but have since squandered after coming to power. One example being their hesitation to implement our adult social care changes, more out of an ideological desire to discredit Liberal Democrats, rather than an evidenced-based attempt to address real problems in our community. This inaction has already cost Reading tax payers thousands of pounds in delays, and this is on top of the costs of their review of our proposed changes.

Following a meeting at Caversham Baptist Church organised in early September by Liberal Democrats it was agreed that the route of the Number 22 bus would be altered to better suit the needs of local residents, however, this was subject to acceptance by the Traffic Commissioner. Reading Liberal Democrats have today learnt from Reading Buses that the variation of the route which Liberal Democrats and local residents campaigned for has been rejected by the Traffic Commissioner.

James Freeman, Chief Executive of Reading Buses who kindly spoke with and listened to residents in Caversham about the bus route changes contacted the Liberal Democrats today to inform us of the latest twist in what is fast becoming a confusing situation, he told us:

I think that I may have explained that the last minute change that we made to the route of the 22 to divert it via the Mount and Kidmore Road was subject to acceptance of the short term-variation by the Traffic Commissioner.

We yesterday received a letter from the Traffic Commissioner refusing our short term variation application variation for the diversion of route 22 via Kidmore Road .

This means that we will have to divert 22 back to the originally registered route via Oakley Road until the full 56 days has elapsed, namely on Wednesday 9/11/11.

In addition, the Commissioner has received information from members of the public alleging that Kidmore Road is dangerous for use by buses because of its narrowness and the junctions at both ends.

We are therefore required to change the route of the 22 as soon as possible in order to comply with the Commissioner’s instructions.

We must then revert to the Kidmore Rd route at the conclusion of 56 days’ notice subject to any action that the Commissioner may wish to take as to the suitability of the route in question.

We will do our best to communicate this change to users by means of a door drop, leaflets on buses and e-mails/letters to as many people as we can. The temporary change starts tomorrow, Saturday.

I attach a copy of the notice that we intend to distribute as widely as possible today and over the week-end. In fact, we have staff out in the area as I write and we shall be distributing the attached leaflet door to door this evening in the areas directly affected.

As you may imagine, this is not what we had hoped.

The Community Link service 28, sponsored by Reading Borough Council, is unaffected by these changes and continues to provide a service via Albert Road, The Mount and Priest Hill as it has been doing since 26th September.

Annette Hendry, local Liberal Democrat campaigner said:

“We were delighted that Reading Buses had listened to the concerns of Caversham residents and had worked with us to make adjustments to the planned route of the pink 22. Though this latest development will no doubt cause confusion, we shall continue to campaign for bus routes that are both safe and useful to the residents of Caversham.”

“I’d like to thank James Freeman for his support and for giving us notice as soon as he could of both the concerns of the Traffic Commissioner as well as the changes to the bus route and I look forward to working further on this matter in which many local residents have such a large stake.”

Reading Lib Dems have welcomed the announcement by the Dept for Transport of a further tranche of £9.6m which will help fund the north and south terminals of the new Reading station.

Transport Spokesperson Cllr Ricky Duveen commented, ‘this is a key project for the development of our town and the willingness of the coalition government to fund it despite the current economic pressures shows a commitment to revamping the country’s infrastructure after many years of neglect.’

‘For Reading this will be a new entrance to the town and one that will cater for visitors and commuters alike. It is right that we make the station entrances suitable for the public travelling to the capital of the Thames Valley.’

An open letter to Tony Page, Lead Councillor for Transport & Planning from Councillor Ricky Duveen:

Tony,
I understand that you, as Lead Councillor, have agreed the increase in car park charges in the two car parks in Tilehurst run by NCP on behalf of the council.

I am not sure whether you realise the precarious nature of retail trade at the moment but Tilehurst shopkeepers are irate at the potential affects on their trade, not from increasing existing car park charges but from withdrawing the free first hour. When the charges were first introduced, the reason given was the necessity to prevent day commuters from filling up the then very heavily used car parks. We ran a campaign on behalf of the shopkeepers to allow a minimum free period for shoppers to use the shops along School Road without paying a parking charge. We were very grateful when the council agreed to waive charges for the first hour and this has enabled the car parks to be run for the shoppers they were intended for rather than for the benefit of commuters.

We cannot understand why you would now want to to depress trade in Tilehurst even further in the current poor trading conditions. Shopkeepers, and their customers, are angry at the introduction of this charge and fearful of the effects on shops in Tilehurst.

I do not have the figures from NCP about the expected income from charging for the first hour, but I do not believe that in the grand scheme of things this amounts to a large amount of income. If you do have the figures then I would very much like to see them.

I was shocked when I visited the local hardware store yesterday to be told by the shop assistant that new car park charges were being introduced without any form of consultation. A petition has already been drawn up and will be presented to the council at the first opportunity.

In short, can I ask you to reconsider your decision to do away with the free first hour in the interests of Tilehurst’s local shopping centre which we would all like to encourage rather than depress even further.

Regards
Ricky

Reading Lib Dems have warmly welcomed the announcement today by the council of the list of roads being re-surfaced in the annual summer operation. Transport Spokesperson Cllr Ricky Duveen said, ‘this is a welcome use of the extra cash given out by the Coalition Government following two severe winters. Reading received an additional grant of £400k for road repairs this year over and above the normal budget.’

‘There is never enough money to repair all the roads that need mending at any one time but this extra funding will make a big difference to road users in Reading.’

The list includes many of the roads that local Lib Dems have campaigned about over the last six months.

Responding to the news that Reading Council has won £5 million pounds funding from the Government’s  Local Sustainable Transport Fund.

Cllr Daisy Benson, Group Leader of the Lib Dems on Reading Borough Council said:

“It is good to see the ambitious plans developed by the previous Lib Dem – Conservative administration including the UK’s second largest bike hire scheme outside London and other  green transport initiatives have been endorsed by the Coalition Government.

“Investing in sustainable transport has long been Liberal Democrat policy and it is good we will feel the benefit of it here in Reading.

“The new Labour administration of the Council must learn from its past transport mistakes including the failed one-way IDR scheme and use this cash to deliver increased cycling and walking opportunities for residents and visitors.”

At the Council meeting this evening Cllr Ricky Duveen (Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson) will be asking the Labour Administration to detail their plans for 20mph zones in Reading. Previously this issue had received all party support and recently the Lib Dem Transport Minister, Norman Baker, has announced changes to the rules governing 20mph zones and making it easier for councils to implement them.

Ricky said, ‘20mph zones have been Lib Dem policy in Reading for several years and we are committed to introducing them where there is support from local residents. We want to see action to follow through on this new initiative which makes it easier for councils to introduce 20mph zones.’

20 mph is gaining increasing support from transport professionals and amongst the British public. The latest British Social Attitudes survey findings show 72% of adults support 20 mph limits (without humps) where people live.

Over 5.4 million people live in places in the UK committed to 20 mph residential road speeds. These include Portsmouth, Oxford, Bristol, Islington and Lancashire.  believe this is coming in Britain.

The difference between going at 20 and 30 mph is real and measurable in terms of many quality of life indicators like casualties, noise, pollution, numbers of cyclists and walkers, obesity and independent child travel.

Traffic in streets reduces social interaction leading to people having fewer friends and less commitment to their community. As social support networks have been shown to increase life expectancy the group contends that creating “living streets” will increase community cohesion and improve health, as well as creating new cycle routes.

Over the coming months Reading Lib Dems will be actively petitioning residents in areas where 20mph zones could make a huge difference to life in our neighbourhoods.

Reading Lib Dems have welcomed the announcement last week by the Coalition Government of measures to reduce the bureaucracy for councils wanting to implement 20mph schemes.

Lib Dem Transport Minister Norman Lamb said, ‘if councils and local communities want to put in place 20 mph schemes on residential roads or use common-sense measures such as variable speed limits outside schools, then they should be able to do so without spending time and money satisfying unnecessary Whitehall diktats.’

The key changes in the process:

• Many of the current restrictions and obstacles to rolling out 20mph zones are being removed so that residential roads can be implemented with cheaper and less signs.
• Importantly councils will no longer require approval from Government to introduce 20 mph zones.

Locally Lib Dems have campaigned for action on road safety and led calls for the introduction of 20mp zones.

Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson Cllr Ricky Duveen was full of praise for the changes.

‘Thanks to action by Lib Dems in coalition government we can move quickly to implement 20mph zones across many more parts of Reading and I will be calling upon the Lead Councillor to do just that.’

‘This is an important step forward in removing some of the red tape and costs that make putting in 20 mph zones such an onerous task.’

’20 mph zones are one of the key issues in making residential roads safer for all their users, pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike.’

Following the announcement that the government is increasing the coming year’s funding for road maintenance in Reading by £400,000 to over £2m in total. This is the money used to make repairs to roads and footpaths across the town, many of which have suffered from severe weather for the second year running.

Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson Cllr Ricky Duveen said:
“This increased investment in Reading’s roads is very welcome particularly after the freezing weather wreaked havoc on many streets in our town.

“When money is tight we are very pleased to see the new Government helping Reading Council fix local roads as this will help reduce accidents and damage to vehicles and bicycles.”