Do you have any ideas to help Wokingham Borough Council save the world?

Wokingham Borough Council is asking residents for their ideas on reducing the council’s carbon footprint in a survey that launched on 26 September.

The survey, which will run to 31 December, asks residents if they have any eco-friendly tips from their personal lives that they are willing to share with other residents, as well as any ideas they have that would help the council on its way to being carbon neutral.

Wokingham Borough Council declared a climate emergency in July and pledged to make the council carbon neutral by 2030. The council is writing an action plan to achieve carbon neutrality and is asking residents for their help.

“We’ve committed as a council to become carbon neutral by 2030, but we can’t do it alone. We need our residents, businesses, charities and schools to work with us to help emissions, address climate change and secure the future of our planet,” said Cllr Gregor Murray, executive member for climate emergency.

“We have a lot of very smart residents in the borough who are already trying to reduce their carbon footprint and we want to tap into their knowledge and expertise. Even if you think someone else might have already submitted an idea, don’t let that stop you. If we get lots of people submitting the same idea, that tells us how important it is.”

To participate in the survey and submit ideas, visit the council website and search consultations.

The best ideas will be shared in a future edition of the Borough News.

Grand opening of new facilities at Addington School

PIC BY STEWART TURKINGTON
www.stphotos.co.uk

A host of new facilities have been officially opened as part of the £4.4million expansion of Addington School. Two new multi-use games areas, a new sensory path and expanded car park were all unveiled at the Ofsted-rated outstanding school in Wokingham borough.

Wokingham Borough Mayor Cllr Bill Soane and executive member for children’s services Cllr UllaKarin Clark cut the ribbon on the new facilities on Monday [30 September]. They were joined by the Woodley school’s headteacher Sara Attra, as well as representatives from contractors Reds10 and HLM Architects.

Brooke Chaplen and Grace Moloney from top-tier women’s football club Reading FC also assisted with the opening and stayed to enjoy the facilities with the students. Pupils have been enjoying the new facilities since the start of term after works were completed during the summer holidays.

PIC BY STEWART TURKINGTON
www.stphotos.co.uk

“It was a pleasure to be on site at Addington to cut the ribbon for the school’s new facilities,” said Borough Mayor Cllr Bill Soane. “I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the pupils and seeing them make the most of the new sports areas. I can’t wait to come back and see the school once this exciting expansion project has been completed.”

Further expansion

The expansion, which will enable more children with special educational needs to attend the school in Woodlands Avenue, will now move onto the main construction phase.

Modular construction specialists Reds10 will complete the project, with 60 to 70 per cent of the work being completed offsite to reduce disruption to the school and its students. The new single-storey block will include four classrooms, a café and social/breakout areas.

The expansion will boost the school’s capacity to more than 250 students due to the extra space, allowing more local children with special educational needs and disabilities to be educated closer to home. All work is being done within the current site boundary.

It will make more children and their families’ lives easier thanks to shorter journeys to school, as well as reducing travel costs for Wokingham Borough Council.

“This is just the first stage in this important project which will allow us to increase the number of young people accessing the excellent specialist education offered at Addington School,” Cllr UllaKarin Clark, executive member for children’s services.

“These changes will make real difference to the lives of these young people and their families, who will be able to go to school near where they live and receive a fantastic education. I am excited to see the progress on the construction of the new building in the coming months.”

Works on the single-storey block will begin this Autumn, with it opening for the start of the new school year in September 2020.

PIC BY STEWART TURKINGTON
www.stphotos.co.uk

PIC BY STEWART TURKINGTON
www.stphotos.co.uk

PIC BY STEWART TURKINGTON
www.stphotos.co.uk

Wokingham Borough Council is increasing the number of parking wardens in response to complaints of unsafe parking around schools across the borough

The council will expand the team of parking enforcement officers due to the recent increase in the number of residents raising concerns about drivers parking unsafely and illegally outside schools and other areas with high levels of unsafe parking around the borough.

Although parking restrictions are in place, the council continues to receive requests from residents for more frequent enforcement, especially in specific towns and villages, such as Twyford, Earley, Shinfield and Finchampstead around schools, shops and train stations.

“The majority of parking complaints we receive from our residents are about the school run,” said Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, executive member for highways and transport.

“Due to the sheer volume of complaints, we don’t currently have the capacity to visit the trouble spots regularly enough for our patrols to have a significant enough impact on changing this negative behaviour.

“We are trying to change dangerous behaviour and decrease congestion caused by parking violations. We have listened to the concerns of our residents and increased visible patrol presence across the borough to ensure the safety of our residents.”

New pilot scheme

We will increase our civil parking enforcement team by 75% which will provide more effective enforcement across the borough as well as increase the number of schools we are able to visit per day. The extra resource will be flexibly targeted across the Borough to give us the maximum ability to deal with problem areas.

The additional resource within the parking department will also play a vital role in the council’s new pilot scheme announced by Cllr Jorgensen at the full council meeting last week.

We will be piloting a new initiative to introduce parking infringement notices (PIN) that will see council parking wardens issue warnings to those causing unnecessary and wilful obstruction of the highway.

“There are a number of parking violations that we receive complaints about but are unable to enforce, such as parking on pavements and at the corners of roads.These remain the responsibility of the police, ” continued Cllr Jorgensen.

“There may be some drivers who are unaware that they are parking illegally as our parking wardens have not previously issued them with a ticket. By issuing PIN notices we can educate those residents that are parked illegally as well as gather evidence of persistent offenders that can be passed onto Thames Valley Police (TVP). This is something we were previously not allowed to do and we are grateful to TVP for allowing us to trial this new initiative.”

PINs will be issued to vehicles by trained parking wardens and the details of vehicles recorded in a database, which will be used to evaluate the impact of the pilot upon specific locations and vehicles involved.  The information will be made available to Thames Valley Police for consideration of further action, as deemed necessary.

The pilot PIN initiative will begin in October and run until the end of the year. An interim review will then be carried out and any amendments to the process made in order for the project to run until the end March 2020.

For further details of parking restrictions around the borough visit the council website at www.wokingham.gov.uk and search ‘parking restrictions’.

Get your budding artists to enter the super hero competition as part of the Wokingham Children’s Book Festival to win WHSmith goodies!

Could you offer a room to a local foster child?

With many young people starting new jobs and moving away from the family home this autumn, now may be perfect time to make use of an empty bedroom in Wokingham Borough by offering a home to a child in need. Currently there are more than 100 children in the borough council’s care.

Wokingham Borough Council is always looking new foster carers for children and young people who want to be fostered close to family in the area. A spare bedroom all year round is one of the key requirements for someone who wants to put themselves forward to possibly be the right family for one of our children.

Becoming a foster carer, means assisting a young person in need by offering a safe, secure and happy family life for the period of time they need.

Find out more

Those wanting to find out more may want to attend Wokingham Fostering’s next drop-in information event at the Oakwood Centre, in Woodley, 17.30-19.45 on Wednesday 25 September.

As well as a chance to make a difference with a young person in need, fostering through the council offers an attractive remuneration package, council tax exemption, excellent training including a specialist therapeutic programme, as well as one-to-one and out-of-hours support.

Fees increase with experience often resulting in the equivalent of a good salary, which could provide a complete change of career. For example, an experienced foster carer at Level 2, who cares for two children all year, could earn more than £25,000 p.a. excluding generous allowances for the child.

The council has almost 50 fostering homes in the Borough already but is always looking for more. The more foster homes the council has available, the more able it will be to help young people in its care find a family home.

“We can change more lives for the better if we have an increased number of foster carers in the Wokingham Borough, as we would be able offer homes to even more children close to their families,” said Cllr UllaKarin Clark, executive member for children’s services.

“This time of year often sees a period of change in families’ homes, with children moving away, but it presents a fantastic opportunity to make use of a bedroom, taking advantage of the benefits on offer, while potentially providing a loving home for a young person who needs one.

“If you are excited by this opportunity and have life experience, as well as the time and capacity to potentially look after a child, or have even had a fleeting thought about potentially fostering, talk to our fostering team at one of our events, or give them a call.”

Contact Jackie Ross in the fostering team on (0118) 974 6204, emailfostering@wokingham.gov.uk, visit ‘Wokingham Fostering’ Facebook or go to www.fostering.wokingham.gov.uk

A record number of local children have thrown away their stabilisers this summer after pedalling their way to success, completing Wokingham Borough Council’s Bikeability Learn to Ride course at Woodford Park and other locations

Wokingham Borough Council’s My Journey team have successfully helped a massive 168 of our school age children master the skill of riding a pedal bike.

The My Journey team hosted regular weekly sessions at the FBC centre in Finchampstead and at Woodford Park Leisure Centre in Woodley, where children were invited to attend two consecutive sessions to learn to ride.

Due to its continued success, demand for the sessions have increased. To help accommodate as many enthusiastic wannabe cyclists as possible this summer, the My Journey team worked in partnership with Cycle Experience to run a number of additional sessions throughout the summer holidays at Floreat Montague Park primary school in Wokingham.

Over two weeks in August, 86 children attended the courses, bringing the total number of children trained this Summer to 168.

Congratulations

“I would like to congratulate all our young children who have mastered this fantastic skill over the summer, a skill that will stay with them for the rest of their lives”, said Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, executive member for highways and transport.

“I would encourage any parent wanting some help with teaching their child to ride a bike to get in contact with the My Journey team and get signed up to one of their weekly sessions.”

The key to success for the Bikeability Learn to Ride course is partly down to the number of instructors, with the team able to offer one instructor for every two or three children.

During the sessions the team use bikes without pedals (balance bikes) and teach children to balance, glide, steer and stop. Once they have mastered balancing, they move on to learning how to pedal.

The My Journey Wokingham team will be running more Bikeability Learn to Ride sessions this term on Thursdays from 4 to 5pm. There is a £5 charge per session and booking is essential, via the My Journey Wokingham website at www.myjourneywokingham.com/events

Gold national award for Wokingham top canine carers 

The Public Protection Partnership’s canine carers have won a top national award for the gold standard way they look after stray dogs. For the tenth successive year the Animal Warden service has won the RSPCA’s Footprint Award in its Community Animal Welfare Footprint (CAWF) Awards

This award recognises public sector organisations going above and beyond basic and statutory animal welfare standards. Established in 2008, the annual Footprint awards are supported by the Local Government Association, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. Gold standard is the highest achievement.

Cllr Hilary Cole, Chairman of the Joint Public Protection Committee, said: “We are delighted that for the tenth year in a row our excellent Animal Warden service has received a top RSPCA award. Our aim is to reunite a dog and owner and get it home, or find it a new home, as quickly as possible. If there is a delay we take the dog to our kennels that are staffed by trained professionals and manned 24/7. All the dogs are assessed by a vet whether sick or not. We keep the dog for up to seven days to give the owner a chance to claim the animal. If the dog is not claimed we find a space in a rescue centre and we only use rescue centres that vaccinate, microchip, neuter and home check.”

Help

If you have lost or found an animal within Wokingham Borough we can be found online at https://publicprotectionpartnership.org.uk/environmental-health/animal-warden/and https://www.facebook.com/Animal-Warden-West-Berkshire-and-Wokingham-Borough-councils-421065871394741/.

Alternatively you can contact us:
• During office hours (9am – 5pm, Monday to Thursday or 9am – 4:30pm Friday) on 01635 519171 or
• Outside of these times (including Bank Holidays) on 0844 499 6063

Public Protection Partnership

Wokingham Borough’s Animal Warden Service comes under Environmental Health and Licensing which is part of the Public Protection Partnership, a shared service provided by Wokingham Borough Council, Bracknell Forest Council and West Berkshire Council.

The Public Protection Partnership – publicprotectionpartnership.org.uk – is a shared service delivering Environmental Health, Licensing and Trading Standards to over 450,000 people and 10,000 businesses on behalf of three authorities, Wokingham Borough Council, West Berkshire Council and Bracknell Forest Council. The Joint Public Protection Committee oversees the work of the Public Protection Partnership.

We are pleased to report that Woodley Town Council has received the External Auditor Report on its 2018/19 Annual Governance and Accountability Return stating that in their opinion the information in sections 1 and 2 of the Return is in accordance with proper practices and no other matters have come to their attention giving cause for concern that relevant legislation and regulatory requirements have not been met.

To view the notice of the conclusion of audit and the relevant sections of the Council’s Annual Governance and Accountability Return for 2018/19 click HERE.

Helping the local homeless

Wokingham Borough Council, in its commitment to support those at risk of homelessness and people who sleep rough, has a new draft strategy to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the borough and wants to know what you think.

Consultation

The consultation is available on the council’s website from 9 to 27 September by visiting www.wokingham.gov.uk and searching ‘consultations’.

The strategy has four key priorities: early intervention and prevention; working towards ending rough sleeping and tackling hidden homelessness (people who become homeless but are staying with friends or family); building more affordable homes; and supporting our vulnerable residents.

To address these priorities, the council is proposing to work with long-term rough sleepers, look closely at the hidden homeless in the borough and reduce its use of emergency and temporary accommodation for the homeless.

“The impacts of homelessness can be devastating for individuals and families. Homelessness can affect everything — health, education and employment,” said John Kaiser, executive member for finance and housing. “Homelessness can have long term consequences for those affected. As a result, reducing homelessness and rough sleeping is a key priority for the council.

Homelessness is an important issue and we want to hear what you think of our priorities and aims. Visit our website to tell us how you think we should tackle this difficult issue.”

Help

For information on how to get advice if you or someone you know is or may become homeless, visit our website at www.wokingham.gov.uk and search ‘homelessness’.

To contact the council for help on homelessness, phone 0118 974 6000 during office hours or 01344 786 543 after hours, via email at housing.needs@wokingham.gov.uk or by visiting the council offices at Shute End, Wokingham.

If you are aware of someone sleeping rough in the borough, let the council know by sending an alert to StreetLink. The details you provide will be sent to the council, who will use the information to find the individual, offer them support, and explore ways to find them accommodation.