Thames Valley Police, in association with Wokingham Borough Council, are hosting a Burglary & Fraud Community Conference on Wednesday 27 November.

Due to a reported increase in the number of residential burglaries across the Bracknell and Wokingham areas, targeting unoccupied homes in order to find and steal jewellery, cash and other items, Thames Valley Police have issued the following advice.

TVP are advising if you are home in the late afternoons and early evenings, please keep an eye out for your neighbours and don’t hesitate to report any suspicious activity on the Thames Valley Police website or via the Police non-emergency number 101. If you suspect a burglary is in progress, please dial 999.

You can help protect your home and belongings by considering the following:-

Internal lighting
Use an automatic plug-in time-switch to operate a lamp or light at pre-set times when you’re out.

External lighting
A clear, low white light that activates at dusk to dawn is ideal for lighting a yard and garden and allowing any person to be clearly seen.

CCTV and Video Doorbell Systems
A wide range of CCTV cameras and video doorbell systems are available and have proven useful in investigations.

Alarms
Consider an accredited burglar alarm system with audible alarm boxes mounted high at the front and rear of your home.

Doors, Windows and Gates
Close and lock all your doors and windows, even if you’re only going out for a few minutes and make sure any side and rear gates are locked.

Social Media
Be careful not to publicise when your home is unattended on social media, post your holiday or party snaps once you are back home.

The next phase of work to expand the Ofsted rated outstanding Addington School has begun, as the £4.4million project gathers pace. It means the council will be able to improve the lives of 50 more young people, due to the increased capacity, by giving them the best SEND education possible, when the new building officially opens in September 2020.

Groundworks for a new single-storey block at the school in Woodley have now started, with completion anticipated on the building, which will include four classrooms, a café and social/breakout areas, in the spring.

The expansion will boost the school’s capacity to more than 250 students. It means more children with special educational needs and disabilities from the Wokingham borough will be able to be educated closer to home, making families’ lives easier by reducing journey times, as well as reducing the council’s travel costs.

Between 60 and 70 per cent of the construction will take place off site by contractor Reds10. This approach will reduce disruption to the school and its students. The building will be made indoors, in sections and then transported to the school in Woodlands Road, Woodley. Site set up began this week with groundworks taking place until January before the main build and fit out starts.

The construction method means the materials can be packed flat, often with a whole building on one truck, reducing the number of vehicle trips required as part of the project compared to traditional construction. Using construction approaches such as this will help Wokingham Borough Council towards its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Work should be completed in the spring, with the facilities officially opening for the new school year in September 2020.

This follows the official opening of two new multi-use games areas (MUGAs), a new sensory path and an expanded car park at the end of September this year. The school’s students were joined by Reading FC Women’s stars Brooke Chaplen and Grace Moloney as the new sports facilities were unveiled. These were constructed over the summer to ensure pupils had all the facilities they need upon returning to school for the Autumn term.

“I’m delighted to see the next phase of this exciting expansion project begin,” said Sal Thirlway, assistant director for children’s services (learning, achievement and partnerships). “The construction method we have chosen means there will be minimal disruption for the school and its students while still providing a fantastic, modern facility fitting the need of Addington School’s young people. It also showcases a type of construction method which will help the council in its goal of being carbon neutral by 2030.

“Being able to increase the number of places we are able to offer SEND children in Wokingham borough by building this new block, will help to improve the lives of our young people as well as their families by reducing travel times. Addington is rightly an Ofsted-rated outstanding school, which produces brilliant outcomes for young people. We are delighted we are going to be able to offer the chance to be educated there to even more children in our Borough from next year.”

On Monday, 11th November, BBC Children in Need’s Pudsey Bear made a surprise visit to a group of children supported by Me2 Club.

To read more about Me2 Club and its visit with Pudsey, please click HERE.

Me2 Club with BBC Children in Need’s Pudsey

Michelle Jordan from BBC Berkshire interviewing children supported by Me2 Club

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) has launched a video  ‘Don’t Disappear’ to raise awareness of relationship abuse.   This is following its ‘Know this isn’t Love’ coercive control campaign from earlier in the year.  It has been launched under the branding of Victims First.  Victims First supports victims and witnesses of crime across the Thames Valley and is managed by the OPCC.

The film – ‘Don’t Disappear’  – tells the story of Jamie and Emma; from the seemingly loving early stages of their relationship, to the development of coercive and controlling behaviours such as jealousy and possessiveness, control, love bombing and isolation.

While anyone of any age can be a victim of coercive control, the OPCC is particularly keen to promote this to younger people who may have less relationship experience and people who are at the beginning of a relationship.  The aim of the video is to raise awareness of  the red flags – the early signs of coercive control which at the time, may be missed or misinterpreted as acceptable behaviour in a relationship.

The OPCC hopes the video will help people who may be in controlling relationships to identify with it and potentially seek help.

Anyone who is concerned they may be experiencing this can contact Victims First for support on 0300 1234 148  You can find further information about coercive control at www.victims-first.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigns/

We are collecting donations for the Reading Toys and Teens Appeal up to 1st December. Please bring your donations to the Council reception at the Oakwood Centre. Thank you.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Remembrance Memorial today (11/11/19)

Woodley Town Mayor Cllr Kay Gilder 

Wokingham Mayor Cllr Bill Soames

MP Reading East – Matt Rodda 

Cllr Kay Gilder thanking the crowd

At the Full Council Meeting on Tuesday 1 October, the following motion was adopted:

“This Council notes that:

1. The impacts of climate breakdown are already causing serious damage around the world.
2. Limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, October 2018) may still be possible with ambitious action from national and sub-national authorities, civil society and the private sector.

This Council therefore:

1. Commits to a declaration of a ‘Climate Emergency’ with the aim of becoming a carbon neutral organization by 2030.
2. Welcomes the declaration by Wokingham Borough Council of a ‘Climate Emergency’ and will actively participate in the creation of the Borough-wide climate change strategy to ensure Woodley Town Council is fully engaged in its creation for the benefit of its residents.
3. Will explore, with all parts of the community, the development of a local action plan in support of, and to compliment, the Borough Council’s climate change strategy plan for those parts relevant to Woodley Town.”

Gregor Murray, Wokingham Borough Council Executive Member for Climate Emergency spoke of the Borough Council’s plans to address climate change and work in partnership with town and parish councils. Woodley Town Council will work with Wokingham Borough Council as part of a cross-party working group, beginning with the formation of an action plan over the next six months.

Meanwhile, Woodley Town Council will also continue its commitment to climate change through its current campaigns and initiatives.

Wokingham Borough Council’s decision-making executive has approved a £630,000 ‘fighting fund’ to help it defend its planning decisions against speculative developers’ appeals to the Planning Inspectorate.

The council is facing an increasing number of speculative planning applications for developments in unsustainable locations, on land not allocated for development. Although these applications are being refused by the council, developers can appeal to the national Planning Inspectorate against the locally-made decision.

Wokingham Borough Council knows it will have to defend at appeal a number of its decisions in coming months including: its refusal of 216 homes on land east of Finchampstead Road (application number 190286) and its refusal of 118 homes on land north of Nine Mile Ride in Finchampstead (181685). Other appeals coming up include land south of Cutbush Lane in Shinfield.

There has not yet been an appeal lodged against the Cemex decision at Bridge Farm earlier this year but the applicant has until 23 February 2020 to do so.

“We have been robust in refusing planning applications when it is the right thing to do, but we can’t be complacent. Developers have the right of appeal and, when they do, decisions are made by a nationally appointed planning inspectors after legal arguments,” said Cllr Wayne Smith, executive member for planning and enforcement.

“We cannot change the law, but we can make sure our legal arguments are as strong as possible and this fighting fund will help us do that. In total, we have appeals already set that could mean more than 600 homes and we know there will be more to come. That is why this fighting fund is so important.”

One of the key reasons the Wokingham Borough is prey to speculative planning applications, in unsustainable areas outside those allocated for new homes, is because the council’s long-term strategy (the Local Plan) to provide the homes required is coming to its end and needs to be extended. The council is working on this new plan and has carried out large scale public consultation in recent years to guide it and is due to consult again early in the new year before a final plan is put forward.

“The need to make progress on our Local Plan and the need to allocate extra funds to defending our current planning policies are linked. The fighting fund will help us in the short term and the Local Plan will safeguard us in the longer term,” said Cllr Smith.

“We know our residents don’t want the sort of housing target central government is pushing for, but we also know we must continue to ensure our Local Plan is up-to-date or we will be vulnerable to more and more proposed development in unplanned and unsustainable locations. We are working on a strategic vision that squares that circle and will be able to publicise it later this autumn.”

The competition to design a poster to advertise the annual Woodley town centre extravaganza received a number of fantastic entries and we would like to say a huge thank you to those children who participated. It was, as always, very difficult to choose the three winners but, after much deliberation, these are the three chosen winners for 2019.

  Lauren Watkins, Age 10, Beechwood Primary

Sian Watkins, Age 10, Beechwood Primary

Yvie Hardy, Age 10, St Nicholas CE Primary

The judges also highly commended the following posters:

Violet Hardy, Age 7, St Nicolas School Hurst

Roxanne Allen, Age 9, St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School

Owen Winship, Age 9, Rivermead Primary School

The competition winners will have the privilege and honour of turning on the Christmas lights in Woodley town centre on 23rd November 2019.

The Garden of Remembrance will be closed today due to essential tree works. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.

Wokingham Borough Council has launched a new streamlined adult social care department that will provide vulnerable adults across the borough with a more efficient and improved quality of service.

In-house

The council has brought statutory functions previously carried out by Optalis (a local authority company jointly owned with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead) into their adult services in order to improve the quality of service and gain more control of these functions.

Previously, Optalis delivered parts of the council’s adult social care statutory service provision* with the remaining statutory services provided directly by Wokingham Borough Council and it has always been the intention to create a seamless pathway in order to deliver the best service to residents.

“We are always striving to provide the best service for all our residents, especially those who are vulnerable and as the demands on our adult services continues to increase we continue to evolve,” said  Cllr Charles Margetts, executive member for health, well-being and adult social services

“Wokingham Borough Council and Optalis both have excellent, hard-working, caring staff and we thank them all for providing an excellent service, especially throughout this structural change. By improving processes and removing barriers we will be able to provide a joined up service that allows a more efficient and customer-focused practice.”

Direct control

The change has involved the transfer of about 50 staff from Optalis to WBC and mean that the council have direct control of all statutory adult social care functions. This will now allow the council to focus on improving this area and Optalis to continue to provide high quality care services. It would not require any additional money and is funded from existing budgets.

Optalis will continue to provide a large proportion of adult care services on behalf of WBC, which it has done since 2011. During that time, Optalis has consistently delivered high quality care.

The Care Quality Commission considers Optalis services to be good or outstanding. This is a fantastic achievement and is a credit to the leadership and all of the staff. It will continue to provide care and support services for Wokingham Borough residents as it does now”.

*The statutory services previously carried out by Optalis cover annual reviews for all residents receiving support, brokerage to ensure personal budgets are used in the most effective ways, some long-term support packages and services to maximise assistive technology.