richard mckenzie

Richard Mckenzie is fundraising for British Heart Foundation

2011-05-10T21:55:00.000+01:00

Richard Mckenzie is fundraising for British Heart Foundation

Yes to get fit and to use all that energy I built up on the campaign, I am taking part in the BHF London to Brighton cycle ride, 54miles of hills and English country side. Started training today. Did 18miles around the Chilterns and went over them 3 times. Lots of work to do.

Its on Fathers Day in June. Will be updating as I go

To sponsor me click here

The End

2011-05-06T20:12:00.000+01:00

The results are in and I lost.

I would like to thank all those who helped in my campaign, Rachael, Jon, Andrew, Sherley, Sarah, Mike, Peter, Helen and lots of others. It is disappointing to lose and I am going to take sometime to think about the future. I know that the Blogeratti will be crowing about my defeat. All I can say is that I hope that you are blessed.

Thank you to all those who put their trust in me by voting Labour yesterday.

A Weekend With Communities

2011-05-02T12:26:00.000+01:00

Strange weekend, Royal Wedding on Friday, I didn't have an invite and Vaisakhi on Sunday with campaigning and a visit to my own church, Wycliffe, in between.

We are continuing door knocking and are still meeting people who want to vote Labour. It is great to see voters decide that they want a Council that really looks after its residents and that listens to its residents concerns.

Sunday started off with a visit to Wycliffe's early service at 9 O'Clock in the morning. It is a traditional service rather than the normal Wycliffe service. After the service I whipped across Cumberland Road to the Gudwara to take part in the Sikh Community's Vaisakhi celebrations. This is usually a colourful and interesting event. The procession goes up the Wokingham Road, along Church Road, Pitts Lane and back down the A4 to Cumberland Road.

The rest of the day was spent talking to residents in the Ward. This is something I really enjoy, I love listening to residents concerns and trying to help them get the services they need. The campaign continues and am looking forward to Thursday.

So that you can see the pictures I took of the event I have put a link to my Flickr feed of the day.

Too Many Takeaways?

2011-04-28T08:01:00.001+01:00

There has been an application to site a Burger Van in the car park of the College Arms and I am calling for the Council to reject the application.

The full reference of the application is;Application for Street Trading Consent by the College Arms,Wokingham Road, reference ES/LIC/0050024

I believe that the Council should reject the application for the following reasons:

1. Density of Takeaways.

The Wokingham Road is a awash with takeaways and opportunities for people to get food late at night. In the parade of shops next to the pub there are at least 4 and in the shopping area itself there are countless others. It is already possible to buy food there at 3am if you so desire so adding another food outlet will over power the rest of the area.

2. Anti Social Behaviour

The burger bar will be up off the main road. It will be unpoliced and will of course not have any toilets. There have already been incidents in local takeaways, such as the shooting at the PFC last year. The burger van will be a magnet for potential Anti Social Behaviour and will at the very least lead to an increase in the number of people wanting to relieve themselves in the car park.

3. Nuisance

The car park currently acts as a buffer between residents and the takeaways. A burger van will lead to an increase in noise and rubbish, all of which will impact on residents in the area.

This is the jist of a letter which I have written to the Council's licensing committee and I hope that they will pay attention to my and residents' objections.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-24T23:38:00.000+01:00

Its been a hot weekend, I have been out in the sun abit and have caught the sun on my head.....note to self must wear a hat when canvassing and processing.

Although it is a bank holiday weekend we were still out campaigning. On my part the weekend has consisted of canvassing, work, some family time and some time with the members of the local Newtown churches, Wycliffe, my church, and St John's in Orts Road celebrating Good Friday.

It has been a tradition, well at least in the last 3-4 years that the Newtown churches take part in a procession of witness through Newtown, meeting the residents, singing hymns and offering passers by hot cross buns. It is a great way to meet the community with so many Wycliffe and St John's members coming from Newtown and there are always lots of people on the street to talk to, especially when you are giving away hot cross buns.

We processed from the Abbot Cook pub, who kindly provided coffee. We walked along the London Road, down Chomeley Road to School Terrace. Then down to Kennetside and then back to Orts Road via the Fisherman's COttage. It was great in the sun to sing hymns and offer passer s by Hot Cross buns.

The whole procession ended with more Hot Cross buns at St John's and then a church service.

These are my pictures and I hope I have captured the spirit of the event and Newtown in the sunshine. While I am trying to improve my photography, I am particularly happy with the last picture. I saw the poster in someone's window and really liked the sentiment.

I Want To Hear From

2011-04-20T18:31:00.000+01:00

There has been a lot of discussion in Park Ward about a possible new Secondary School in East Reading. I know a lot of people are very concerned about the lack of information coming out the sponsors and it seems the moment to canvass residents' views about the school. This information can help inform the debate and I hope we will be able to use this in discussions with the sponsors.

I will publish the results and the more people that fill it in the better the information I will be able to feed back to the sponsors.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Reproach to racists- Another Indulgent Article

2011-04-17T14:08:00.000+01:00

Time for another self indulgent article. It is Palm Sunday today and I actually managed to make it to Church today.

While sitting in church it struck me what the Kingdom of Heaven might be, what living in Park is like and why I like living in Park. Looking around church there were a mixture of Brits, Germans, Dutch, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Brazilian, Ghanaian, South African, Japanese and people from all over the world worshiping together. When the palm crosses were handed out we all went up together to pick some up and hand them to the congregation. It was very moving to see hands of every colour working together. The message of Palm Sunday was about Jesus' preparations before Crucifixion and his eventual return as Lord of all. If you want to hear the sermon click here.

Just as church ended I had to nip around the corner to the Gudwara to a meeting there. Now this was another eye opening experience, members of the Sikh community meeting according to their traditions. People wanted. Their hospitality is faultless, and you will always get something to eat there. I can recommend it. The Sikh community has been there since the 70's and they are at home.

So the reproach is, a multi cultural Reading is a great place and a strong place to live. All the communities have their own particular issues, but together they make the town a richer place, a more interesting place and a more tolerant place. One where I can where my Palm Cross in the street and Sikh community can hold their festivals. Reading is a town that thrives in its diversity and would be restricted by cultural uniformity.

Only 3 Weeks to Go

2011-04-16T17:51:00.000+01:00

Here is a picture of my house in Hamilton Road, decked out for the elections.

After a couple of days in Berlin, doing research, it was good to get back to the campaign. We have been all over the Ward in the last few days talking to residents and asking them about their concerns and worries.

It is great to see the positive reaction the Labour team is getting on the doorstep. Infact as I was putting up these signs someone stopped the car to tell me their concerns and asking me my opinion on the issues that concern them.

On the doorstop residents are still concerned about the Maiden Erlegh issue and worried by Wokingham's attempts to stop Park Children going there. I am very worried by it too and have promised to get my Party to persue what legal action is possible if we take power in May. Many residents were also concerned to hear that the Conservatives had welcomed Wokingham's plans. To see a copy of the Tories letter click the link here .

Residents are also saying that they cannot believe the vicious cuts that the Conservative and Liberal Democrats are forcing through the Council. It was good to be able to tell them that the way to get rid of the Council is vote Labour on the 5th May. Basically no other vote will bring the Conservatives down, even staying at home is effectively a vote for the Conservatives.

Walking around the streets of Newtown it is great to find people I have worked with, I have studied with and go to church with all stopping to chat. All in all a sunny week, all in all an encouraging week and now there is only 3 weeks to go and then we will know the answer to the question, who will be the next Park Ward Council and which Party will be in control after 5th May.

Is Canvassing Dangerous ?

2011-04-08T08:11:00.000+01:00

Fantastically interesting day yesterday. Met lots of residents and all for the price of one bike crash.

Douglas Alexander and the Pakistani Community Centre

I met with Douglas Alexander MP and members of the Pakistani Community Centre at lunchtime. It was interesting to hear his take on Libya, the Afgan conflict and issues of racism. I was asked to make a short speech and asked him how we deal with the attitude of papers like the Daily Express who seem intent on stirring up intolerance in our communities.

Canvassing

We have been out most nights knocking on residents' door for the last few months. It was very nice to be door knocking when it wasn't raining, snowing or dark. The residents were very concerned about many issues, however the main issue was still Maiden Erlegh. I was happy to complete the picture for residents, however they seemed very concerned about Conservative Councillor Wazir's role in supporting WBC's proposals. It was on the way to canvassing that I fell off my bike, so had to do the canvass feeling slightly wobbly.

University and Redlands NAG

Topped the evening off with the University and Redlands NAG public meeting. The Council, Police, University and Students' Union all presented what they have been doing to react to residents' concerns about the area. The police presentation was striking, crime is down in the area, however burglary is an issue. Burglary has become an issue because of the number of Houses in Multiple Occupation which seem to be less well secured. The Police is working with the University and Landlords to make sure that the Landlords fulfil their obligations to protect their tenants. There was a good mix of residents and officials, unfortunately the Park Councillor who is up for election, Conservative Cllr Wazir Hussain, appeared not to have it in his diary so wasn't there. Shame really...........

Is it time to persue legal action?

2011-04-06T20:56:00.000+01:00

Cllr Wazir's letter welcoming WBC's prosals

I have just sent the below letter to all original petitioners, who had signed the first petition against the Wokingham's plans to stop Park's children attending Maiden Erlegh school.

Many of you will have already been informed of Wokingham Borough Council’s decision regarding the Maiden Erlegh catchment are, however I have been asked by a number of parents to send an email to the original petition list to ensure that as many people as possible know what is going on.

On Thursday last week Wokingham Borough Council’s Executive came to its final decision on the Maiden Erlegh catchment area.

I am sad to say that they decided to support the distance from Bulmershe minus distance from Maiden Erlegh plan that effectively ensures that children from Park will not be able to attend Maiden Erlegh, unless they have a brother or sister at the school already. They have made one compromise of a 600m inner catchment area. This will include houses in Silverdale Road which were going to be excluded by the proposal but will not bring Park Ward in to the catchment area.

This decision is very disappointing and effectively splits the Earley community and favours children from Lower Earley over Park children who will be excluded from Maiden Erlegh from 2012.

These are substantially the same proposals, which were described as “sensible” and “equitable” by Councillor Hussain in his letter to Park residents in November last year. ( For full details click here)

The full details of the catchment area are as follows:

1. Park Ward, Lower Earley, western Woodley and the Maiden Erlegh estate become part of a joint Bulmershe/Maiden Erlegh catchment area. The school which your child will attend will be decided on the basis of your house’s distance, as the crow flies from Bulmershe School, minus distance from Maiden Erlegh, as the crow flies. It is assumed in the plan that Maiden Erlegh will fill from the Shinfield end of Lower Erlegh. There will be an inner catchment area around Maiden Erlegh of 600m from the school, however this will not include any of Park Ward.

2. Siblings of children currently studying at Maiden Erlegh will be able to enter Maiden Erlegh until 2018 as long as the older child is still at Maiden Erlegh. If the sibling is in the Sixth Form this will count as attending the school.

Way forward

The Parents’ Group is considering options around legal action, I am campaigning with Councillor Jon Hartley to make sure that my Party commits itself to persuing legal action against Wokingham Borough Council in its manifesto for the May elections if Labour takes control of Reading Council in May.

Many of you will have read about the proposal for a University Technical School somewhere in East Reading. Many parents have expressed their concerns about the school, they are uncertain and the information released so far is vague and very unclear. Currently there is no information as to the exact opening date, curriculum or even where it will be based. What is clear is that the situation remains unclear.

Wokingham is determined to exclude Park’s children from Maiden Erlegh, I will keep working to ensure that you are fully informed as the issue develops and as the various legal actions come to fruition.

If Only All Saturdays Could be like this.....

2011-04-02T23:38:00.000+01:00

This week has been so busy, lots of street work and lots of things happening in the Ward. Saturday saw the morning spent talking to residents in Park and the afternoon spent at Alfred Sutton's International Fayre.

On the streets residents were concerned about many things but something that particularly raised hackles was the Conservative's changes to the disabled bus pass. Previously if you held a disabled or OAP bus pass you received free bus travel before 9.30. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat council forced the motion through the Council to remove the concession on Tuesday. They gave disabled people exactly 3 days to find out about the change and introduced it on Friday. If that wasn't malicious enough they sent the letters out so late that they didn't arrive until Friday afternoon. If you were disabled and worked you would have already had the humiliation of having your pass rejected in the morning.

Many residents were shocked at the Conservative Council's pettiness and narrow mindedness.

I spent the afternoon at Alfred Sutton's International Fayre. I think this is the third one we've held. The PTA and its Chair should be very proud of what they have achieved. I was on the English stand. There were stands representing: Spain, Wales, Pakistan, Portugal, Iraq, Poland, South Africa, France, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Jamaica and of course England. It was a great afternoon. I am sure that I have missed some of the stands, but the stands represented the breadth of nations that are represented at the school. As with any Alfred Sutton event there was country dancing but the highlight of the afternoon was the competition to carry a basket on your head. One of the teachers, who originally came from Sierra Leone was challenging people to carry a basket of fruit on their heads. This was the star event and hugely amusing especially if you watched. Loved it.

#26march

2011-03-27T00:38:00.000Z

Stop disfiguring Park Ward

2011-03-23T23:09:00.000Z

Estate Agent's sign Grange Ave

It is student let time in Park Ward. In roads like Pitcroft, Grange and Liverpool estate agents have disfigured the streets with forests of For Let signs.

The Redlands NAG, of which I am a member, ran a campaign to get the estate agents to moderate the numbers they put up in any one street. They were pretty successful, however this year the estate agents are disfiguring the streets and pointing out to burglars which houses are student houses and can be targeted for break in.

I am pleased to say that the NAG is demanding action against the estate agents and has put up a petition against this invasion in to the street scene. I am happy to support the campaign and would urge you to sign the NAG's petition.

Its address is: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/44070.html

Manning the Speed Trap

2011-03-15T21:58:00.000Z

Spent the evening with Park's PSCO's, Traffic PC's and St Barts residents who were manning a speed trap in St Barts road. Local residents had been invited by the NAG and Police to see a speed trap at work and monitor how many drivers were speeding down the road. The road is a residential street that forms a link between the Wokingham Road and London Road. Residents are very concerned that motorists are racing down the road at high speeds endangering children and adults crossing the road.

The results were interesting. The Police had run the trap during the day and told me that motorists were averaging about 20-25mile and hour down the road, but a significant number were driving at more than 30 miles and hour.

The Police were there for about an hour and a half in that time 6 drivers were caught driving at more than 30 miles and hour. This may not sound like a significant number however it works out at one speeding car every 15 mins or 4 an hour, or between 70 and 80 speeding cars a day or more than 20,000 speeding cars a year. This makes this a significant problem and one which I will be taking up with the council.

It was good for the Police to see how many cars broke the law and I hope they run the speed trap again. I would like to thank them for letting residents see them at work and the NAG for organising the event.

No Racists in Reading

2011-03-12T16:05:00.000Z

EDL members manning illegal street stall

The English Defence League were in Broad Street today with an illegal street stall handing out leaflets. I was shocked, frustrated and disgusted that they were spreading their gospel of hate in my town.

Kath, my wife and I, saw the stand as we were walking through town after a very nice lunch together.She was so angry I had to hold her arm to stop her saying something.

So shocked was I, that I rang my colleagues in the Labour Party to see if anyone knew if the EDL had permission for their street stand in Broad Street, and discovered that they did not. I am pleased to say that after my intervention the Police were called and the stand was moved on.


EDL member handing out leaflets

I was on my own but had my camera with me. I asked very politely if they would pose for photographs which they were happy to do, they wer proud of the message of hate they were pedaling. As a result of the photos I had a long discussion with the fellow shown here and tried to persuade him that racism is not the answer for Reading.

The chap said some very frightening things like, " We are being outbred 6:1 soon the pakistanis will have taken over the country." He laughed when I pointed him out that if he was worried about the birth rate then he should be at home with his wife doing something about it not pushing racist policies on the streets of my town.

He told me that he was not from Reading but from a town between here and Slough, he though it was disgusting that English schools were being swamped with foreigners. When I asked him what sort of foreigners he meant, he clearly identified pakistanis as foreign. I was appalled I tried to see what he thought of the Eastern Europeans he said they were different because they fitted in and were Christians.

It is interesting what him and his friends said about England being a Christian country, as I told him I was actually a Christian and what church they went to, strangely enough they didn't go to church.

So now we have racists trying to muscle in on our town. Maybe they feel they have been given permission to do this becuase the Council has withdrawn funding from the RCRE in Reading maybe they wanted to use the Mosque planing application in Park, I don't know what I do know is that right minded people in Reading, from whatever party, of what ever church or faith should stand up and say we don't want racists here.

Meeting Park's Public Where They Are

2011-03-12T09:44:00.000Z

The Roebuck My Local

This week has seen us out and about meeting Park's residents throughout the Ward.

It is nice to see that we have some good news about our fight against the Conservative cuts and campaigns coming together. We were able to tell residents in Newtown about the progress we have made in getting a consultation on residents parking. We were able to talk to residents about our efforts to get the streets cleaned and the cuts to the street cleaning services in Park.

Friday saw me hold a regular meeting with the regulars in the Roebuck pub. Ok its a Friday end of week drink with friends, and it is nice to talk to Alex the landlady and the Friday regulars. It is amazing what snippets of information you can pick up from people

Doting about a bit met up with residents in St Barts to talk about their concerns with the Colleys site. It appears that it is staying as a restaurant, thankfully, however they have other worries which we will work on over the next few weeks.

This week is a critical week in the Maiden Erlegh campaign, it is expected that Wokingham will announce their response to their consultations. I have a feeling that they will stick with their strange zone plan. If they do I think this leaves Cllr Ralph, Balsdon, and Wazir's softly softly do nothing approach in tatters. We will see as soon as I have something I will publish it.

We are out and about a great deal and you will see the Labour bike all over the Ward. If you do say hi, I'll be happy to stop and chat.

Conservative Stealth Tax

2011-03-07T18:25:00.001Z

I am a keen recycler and my wife is a keen gardener, Kath is responisble for our house in Hamilton Road being named the "Strawberry House" because of the huge crop of Strawberries growing in our front garden one year. All Kath's gardening and our grass cuttings create a lot of work for our Green recycling bin.

I was destressed to hear that Conservative administration have decided to charge me for my Green Bin. So now we see another of their Stealth taxes. A lot of Park on all sides of Palmer Park have a green bin. I already pay Council tax to have my bins cleared and now the Conservatives want me to pay twice for a service I already use.

We will of course be fighting this, however it is really annoying at this time when resources are short to be double charged. I encourage all Park's residents to write to the Council to complain and perhaps they will change their minds.

Another bad week for the liberal democrats

2011-03-04T23:58:00.000Z

Its been a very very busy week, hence the time between posts. The news has been busy too, a fantastic win in Barnsley while the Liberal Democrats coming 6th and the Conservatives trailing after UKIP. In Reading Liberal Democrat councillor Gareth Epps has decided not to fight for his seat, perhaps bowing to the inevitable? On a national level the Coalition skillfully announced their desire for a no fly zone over Libya while advising of huge cuts in the RAF.

In my own life the week has also been busy, a lot of canvassing, talking to residents and attending meetings of Alfred Sutton's Parents' Forum, where I am Vice Chair.

Canvassing was interesting, apart from it being very very wet and cold. I was talking to a resident in Newtown she was very worried about the cuts that the towns Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat allies are forcing through. She was so worried she said to me" Richard, the only way that the Council can change is for Labour to win in May, to win in Park Ward, and in all the other Wards in the town" I completly agreed and would do my best to see this happen in Park.

"Let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

2011-02-25T22:47:00.001Z

Disgraced Cllr Swaine

An interesting week. At this week's Council meeting, Reading's ruling Conservative/Liberal Democrat Council made 2 awful decisions.

The first awful decision was for huge cuts in services. The cuts run from reducing grass cutting on verges, so you won't be able to see around the corners when you are turn, to a huge reduction in the services for schools.

The Education budget are truely shocking, these are a couple of the highlights which amount to cuts totalling £3.8m

Cutting funds for the Connexions service, so if you are a teenager, like my children, you won't get any support.
Cutting support for schools so they won't get the support they need to help Park's children.
33% increase in the costs of Council after school clubs.

They are brutally honest in their conclusions of their cuts. The report says about cuts to schools support that there will be, "reductions in service to vulnerable families".

These cuts were opposed by the Labour councillors, however the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pushed them through. After taking their first henious decision they moved from their attack on hard working families, like yours and mine to defending disgraced Liberal Democrat Cllr Swaine. You may remember that he had already resigned from the cabinet because of his racist Tweets.

The Labour group brought a motion to Council demanding that in the spirit of Reading Declaration disgraced Cllr Swaine do the decent thing and resign. This was callously voted down by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and Swaine survived to fight another day.

Two awful decisions, a bad night for Reading, however the story wasn't completely over.

The Liberal Democrats nationally decided that enough is enough and have suspended Cllr Swaine. This seems to raise an interesting question, with Swaine suspended, does this mean he is still a Liberal Democrat councillor? If he isn't does the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition have a majority? I don't know but its fun to speculate.

So as Oliver Cromwell said, "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go."

I never thought I'd recommend Thought for the Day

2011-02-25T08:20:00.000Z

I am not a big fan of BBC's Thought for the Day fan. I also don't find Ann Atkins very appealing most of the time, however I found yesterday's really inspiring so add it here . Scroll forward to about 1:48 where it starts.

Park Ward Walk

2011-02-23T22:42:00.003Z

Ok, I know I should comment on the Council meeting where the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats decided to lose another 300 staff. This in addition to the staff that were made redundant before the Budget, but I think the numbers speak for themselves. But...I wanted to highlight Park Ward and the area where I live.

So here is is a slideshow of photos of Park Ward, taken on Sunday. The sharp eyed of you will notice that a couple of the pictures are taken around the centre of Reading, however the majority show Park in all its glory.

I warn you not to be old under Reading's Conservatives

2011-02-22T20:04:00.002Z

Neil Kinnock warned of what would happen with the Conservatives in control, he said amongst other things "...I warn you not to be old....."

Reading's caring Conservatives have displayed once again that it is dangerous to be old under the Conservatives. The Reading Evening Post reports that they have cut the terms of the old peoples' travel card. So if you live in Park and are old it will cost you more to get in to town, or around generally on Reading's Buses.

Park Ward is known as a student Ward, however there are significant numbers of over 60's and they all had the right to travel on Reading's Buses for free, with their pass, at all times. Having seen the latest Park Ward Conservative leaflet I note that they "forgot" to add in this piece of good news, and have majored on their Councillor planting a tress somewhere apart from Park.I have just found out that the tree that Wazir is standing infront of is on Portman Road, by the Rivermead. It is a shame that he didn't join us last year when we replanted a record number of trees in one day, with the Reading effort being at Palmer Park.

Kinnock said that he warned people not to be old, not to be ill, and so on. He is being proved right, Reading's Conservatives have attacked the old people of Park Ward and Reading and do not even have the courage to tell them. Who will be next? Disabled people? Blind people? If they can attack old people then surely there is no real stopping them.

To repeat Neil's warning, with Reading's Conservatives supported by the Liberal Democrats, I warn you not to be old, not to be ill, not to be weak. Yes the they will plant a tree outside your Ward, but they will hit the residents where it hurts and hit them hard.

Out In the Streets

2011-02-20T12:55:00.000Z

Richard with local residents in Hamilton Road

Just come back from a great door knocking session, I was in my own road, Hamilton, but colleagues were across the Ward.

It is really interesting speaking to your own neighbours about the issues that concern them. It seems that very few people were aware of the Conservatives new policy to fine residents for parking with their wheels on the curb. If you live in most of Hamilton or Bulmershe or Liverpool Roads it is almost the only way to park.

I was pleased ot be able to tell my neighbours and other residents that I am working with Labour colleagues in fighting the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats plans and that they are finally considering another U Turn.

So do I like door knocking, yes, and even more when I am close enough at the end of the session to walk home and have my lunch.

BS or the Big Society

2011-02-15T10:17:00.000Z

I was listening to a Radio 4 programme last night about how the Tories are making the "Big Society", also known by the Hashtag #BS, work in Oxford.

I attach a link to the prog here it really is worth 30mins of your time. I am astounded by the breath taking arrogance of the Conservatives in Oxfordshire, an area I know well. The story revolves around the plans for withdrawal of funding of the Counties libraries. It picks up the story of one Library in Sumertown, where the users are middle class and eloquent, they are able to campaign for funds and support, and probably will get something organised to either fund or support the library. The report then contrasts this with the library in Blackbird Leys where the users have low levels internet connections, high unemployment and frankly are already stressed enough with Cameron's attempts to impoverish them that they are finding it difficult to organise.

The leader of Oxfordshire, when challenged by the reporter about the Blackbird Leys library had the brass neck to say something like, "oh yes of course there are plenty of retired academics in Oxford who can pick up the mantel of runing the Blackbird Leys library. The arrogance of it is unbelievable. The Liberal Democrat interviewed says something along the lines of "not my fault gov, I never signed up for this".

If anything should make those of use who are working to protect services in Reading against the attacks by the Conservatives and their heart felt supporters the Liberal Democrats then this programme should spur us on to fight to protect local people, local jobs, local education services and local lives. The hashtag is dead right, #BS describes Camerons service cutting Big Society perfectly.

Have you sent your letter off yet?

2011-02-12T19:26:00.000Z

Just a quick note to remind everyone that you have to email your letter to WBC tomorrow if you want to object to Wokingham's plans to change the Maiden Erlegh catchment area. For a sample letter click here .

The letters have to be in by the 14th. So send Wokingham a Valentine's card they won't forget.

Careful What You Write on the Internet

2011-02-10T08:00:00.000Z

Disgraced Liberal Democrat
Councillor Warren Swaine

Media Releases
Change in Cabinet Post at Reading
09/02/2011
Statement

Cllr Warren Swaine has resigned as the Lead Cabinet member for Environment and Sustainability on Reading Borough Council.

Cllr Kirsten Bayes will take responsibility for the Cabinet portfolio for Environment and Sustainability with immediate effect.
ENDS

I am thankful to Cllr John Ennis for posting on his website today's Council press release advising that Liberal Democrat Councillor Warren Swaine has had to resign from Reading's cabinet. This is reportedly because of racist tweets which Swaine posted about Streatham's Labour MP, Chuka Umunna. Swaine appeared to be publishing racist comments on Twitter about Chuka Umunna while Chuka was on Question Time.

Swaine has spent the last year attacking and abusing people, including me, on his blog and his Tweets. Instead of working for his residents he spends his time throwing buckets of bile at hard working people. Now it has cost him dear and is a lesson for all of us who are engaged in politics and those Conservative and Liberal Democrat Councillor bloggers who think the best way to cover up their failed policies is to publish Tweets and articles that attack and abuse.

So now we know, there is a cost for everything. If you publish abuse, racist cant and libel about your opponents it will catch up with you. Swaine is disgraced and will have to start again to rebuild his tarnished reputation. The rest of Reading's political bloggers should take note.

Comment on the "Big Society"

2011-02-08T17:15:00.000Z

Was having Twitter conversation with a friend this afternoon and they commented about something I was doing saying, " you are more than a gent-in fact you would be the living embodiment of the "big society" if it weren't a load of "Tory Bollocks" - Nough said really.

Jim Hanley

2011-02-07T17:31:00.000Z

I have been wondering what to say about this all weekend. On Friday I was told about the sudden death of my friend Cllr Jim Hanley at the untimely age of 51. Frankly I am really in shock.

I had worked with Jim on a number of campaigns and found him to be a Welsh gent with nerves of steel. It is really difficult to say everything I want to except I will miss Jim and Reading politics will be the poorer for him not being about. My first memory of him, was of him telling me how to act as a good Reading politician and then watching him act out his advice in the Council chamber and committee room.

I would like to express my condolences to Trish, his partner, and his wider family.

Wokingham wants a Valentine's Card

2011-02-05T09:53:00.000Z

There are now only 9 days left before Wokingham's consultation about its new Maiden Erlegh plans closes.

Incase the issue has passed you by, these are the plans by Wokingham Borough Council to prevent South Park's children being able to attend their closest school, Maiden Erlegh. For fuller details click here .This plan will also strangely exclude a large number of Wokingham children who live on the Wokingham Road and also in the roads around Maiden Erlegh. This is also the plan that was welcomed as "equitable" by Park Ward's Conservative Councillor. I attach an extract of his letter to Park Ward above for your amusement.

I was at the drop in meeting yesterday arranged by the Parents' Group. I was surprised to see that the Conservative Councillors were there but I was glad to see that they were getting a serious earful from the parents who are effected by their "equitable" solution.

So I am urging all residents of Park Ward, and those affected in the WBC area to write to Wokingham Borough Council as a matter of urgency. The Park Parents' Group have produced a very useful letter which I reproduce for you here. Please feel free to copy and paste it to use as a basis for your leaflet.

We will keep fitting and keep working to make sure that we get a fair solution that does not descriminate against Park's children. So 9 days to save the catchment area.

Sample Letter

Secondary Schools Admission Consultation YOUR ADDRESS HERE

Wokingham Borough Council

Civic Offices,

Shute End,

Wokingham, RG40 1BN

DATE HERE

Secondary Schools Admissions Consultation

Dear Sir or Madam

I appreciate the need to review the admissions arrangements but there is no pressing or urgent need for change in the case of Maiden Erlegh and Bulmershe (as confirmed by the Independent Review commissioned by WBC). The current DA and tie-break works perfectly well. Maiden Erlegh has a strong community from areas in both Wokingham and Reading.

It should be noted that all currently linked schools have very close ties with Maiden Erlegh and have exceptionally high transfer rates for pupils where that is possible.

I strongly object to the proposed changes to the Maiden Erlegh DA and tie-break for the following reasons:

Yours NAME and SIGN HERE

Reasons for objection

Size of Designated Area: It makes no sense to enlarge a DA so it is massively too big for the school capacity (as confirmed by the Independent Review commissioned by WBC)

Tie Break: The proposed tie-break gives many parents no way of assessing of a child will get a place at Maiden Erlegh. It is unstable near Maiden Erlegh and prioritises pupils that live 3km away over children that might live 300m away

It makes no sense to name the alternative when other schools (John Madjeski, Reading Girls and Forest are much closer) – the Borough Boundary is irrelevant in this matter. This system is not used anywhere else in the country – for good reason!

Social/Demographic Issues: This proposal clearly does not comply with the Schools Admission Code on this matter. The first area to be excluded by the tie-break is the most deprived area of the DA. It will adversely impact the diversity of Maiden Erlegh and The Bulmershe and deprive children of a chance at an ‘Outstanding’ school

Community: All children in Reading Borough and many children in Wokingham Borough Council will be allocated a place at Bulmershe in Woodley, which is not part of our community and much further away.

This will divide our community which surrounds the school, with some getting in and others not. And with no real certainty in any year where the cut off will be. In time, Maiden Erlegh School will become detached from the community living on its door step, serving a community which lives further away.

Many local parents made a decision to be in the Maiden Erlegh catchment area and are part of the Earley community that it serves. Our community has contributed Governors, PTA members and other people who have provided both professional and voluntary skills and talents to the school for many years. Why should these parents now be penalised when other residents did not make the active and positive decision to be part of the Maiden Erlegh catchment area?

Linked Schools: This will also impact on the links between the local primary schools (Aldryngton, Alfred Sutton, Loddon and Earley St Peters) and an outstanding secondary school. The staff and pupils benefit from close links with Maiden Erlegh –through staff training (for example the visual arts department). Transfer rates for children who attend these schools and live in the current Designated Area for Maiden Erlegh are very high. Siblings who attend Maiden Erlegh pick up their younger siblings at the end of the day at all of the local primary schools. This is a benefit recognised in the Admissions code in section 2.22. Moving these children to Bulmershe, makes this impossible

Child Safety: Parents without access to a car will have to let their children make an often hazardous journey to Bulmershe School. Children will have to cross a dangerous, busy road and negotiate a narrow bridge over a railway and motorway, all in darkness in winter. They will have to walk past a lonely, expanse of grassland, on their own if they have stayed at extracurricular activities after school.

Complexity and Clarity: The proposed tie-break is impossible to understand and unclear and gives parents in many areas no chance to predict their chances of a place. Again this clearly breaches the School Admissions Code

Traffic/Green Issues: WBC traffic surveys using the national guidelines are completely unrealistic. Independent Research states that as soon as the travel distance increases over a mile car travel vastly increases (despite what certain Lower Earley residents may be saying). This will vastly increase the numbers of car journeys to Maiden Erlegh and increase the number of car journeys to Bulmershe

Greenwich Judgement: The Schools Admissions Code and the Greenwich Judgement make it very clear that neighbouring boroughs must not be disadvantaged. That this is being done via an obscure tie-break rather than a boundary line is irrelevant as the effect is the same.

Reading children are being deprived of a place at an ‘Outstanding’ school and that fact that a different group of Wokingham children is being disadvantaged is irrelevant.

Appeals and Finances: Given that Maiden Erlegh will be first choice for more than 90% of parents in the new catchments area, many will be disappointed and will appeal against the place they have been allocated. This will in turn raise the number of appeals, the costs of which will fall to the school. As an academy, Maiden Erlegh School will have to employ a full time independent appeals co-ordinator – a huge waste of public finances and tax payers’ money

Parental Choice: This effectively removes all parental choice for all except a band stretching into Lower Earley

Please add your own arguments here: (e.g., your personal situation and any personal views you might want to add, including comments about the consultation process itself or the psychological impact on older primary school aged pupils, especially year 5 who have been left in a state of indecision about their education)

Forgiveness is quite difficult, sometimes

2011-01-30T21:47:00.003Z

This weeek has been cold and bitter. Lollipoping has needed the full services of my thickest gloves and my furriest hat. Door knocking and talking to residents has also needed hats and gloves. Fortunately I was also able to meet with local Park residents at the Students' Union and in the Roebuck, where it was a little warmer and the wind doesn't whistle so.

The temperature was also taken down a peg or two, when the liberal democrats own Cllr Swaine decided that this week was the appropriate moment to bitterly attack me. If you want to read his diatribe click here . Regular readers will know I have decided to fogive those that aren't brave enough to tell me their worries face to face, so I remind Cllr Swaine that he is forgiven and I will ask my friends to pray for him.

On the other hand it is difficult to forgive the ruling Conservatives who are fully supported by the Liberal Democrats in their attack on the people of Reading. They claim that we are all in it together. BUT they will effect the poorest more. If you are on a big wage an increase in bus fares probably doesn't need to have much of an effect. But if like me you are financially up against it you have to cut costs as the bus fare hits you disproportionaly. I might need to get in to town with my children as shown above. Its a tadge difficult to get my wife and both my children on my bike.

The ruling Conservatives, fully supported by the Liberal Democrats, have sold the residents of Park Ward down the river by supporting Wokingham's mad plans to change the catchment area for Maiden Erlegh school. They seem happy to cut the funding to schools in the area, despite this effecting parents who, like me, rely on the State system.

They seem happy to cut funding across the town and leave the less well off hanging. They are happy to reduce the Road Safety programme by making the person responsible redundant, they are happy to cut the graffitti service, they seem happy to make staff redundant in Whitley schools. I imagine that Reading's Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat supporters sleep well at night knowing the poorest in Reading are being hit hardest.

It will be the same on the national level. The economy's contracting, mortgage rates look like they are going to increase, Student fees are going to triple. Are we all in it together or are Cameron and Clegg turning the screw on the weakest, while renaging on their promises about equality.

So this is something I can legitimately get excersised about. We have been campaigning hard in Park Ward, and the people who I speak to on the doors all tell me that they feel let down by the Conservatives and their whole hearted supporters the Liberal Democrats. They are frightened about the security of their jobs and the reduction services in the town.

Those Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians who can't be bothered to speak to me face to face will probably remain cowards for the rest of their political lives, but I live in hope that they will pluck up enough gumption to drop me a line, just think of the fun conversation we could have.

Taking Up An Offer

2011-01-23T22:04:00.000Z

With the Maiden Erlegh Catchment situtation, I have been struck at how the Head of Bulmershe has tried to reach out to the concerned parents of Park Ward. At Wokingham's first public meeting, Bulmershe's Head, Peter Lewis made the offer for concerned residents to come and have an honest look at his school. At the meeting last week, Wokingham's Head of Education made the same offer.

I decided to take up this offer and actually try and see what Bulmershe school is like. On Friday, I met up with Peter Lewis, who was very honest about his school, the schools results and aspirations.

I won't write about my impressions, Mr Lewis was willing to spend nearly 2 hours with me and to take me throw all the years of his school. I found it beneficial and however I would urge any parents and residents to take the Head up on his offer, meet with him and take a tour of the school.

Update about Maiden Erlegh Catchment Consultation

2011-01-17T21:45:00.000Z

Dear Neighbour

Wokingham Borough Council have just held their latest consultation meeting regarding the Maiden Erlegh catchment changes .It was great to speak to many Park Residents during the march down to the school and I was glad to see that the meeting was made up of residents from Wokingham and Reading. It actually appeared as if the Wokingham residents were in the majority. Both sets of parens were united against the proposals by the fact that it discriminates against residents in Reading and in Wokingham.

Proposals

Wokingham stuck very strongly to their proposal for entrance to either Maiden Erlegh being decided by the distance from Maiden Erlegh minus distance from Bulmershe as measured from their house measured as the crow flies. They claimed that this represented the best option for the majority of Wokingham residents, this despite the fact that their plan will obviously now exclude a great number of children who live in roads such as Silverdale as well as Park and who would normally expect to get in to Maiden Erlegh.

Responses to questions from the floor

Wokingham’s spokesman stated that while the public meeting was important they really wanted as many people as possible to respond to the consultation in writing. This must be done by the 14^th Feb. While I could give a blow by blow account of the meeting, little new information was given by Wokingham and I encourage as many people to write to Wokingham Borough Council as possible. If you would like to see a blow by blow account of the meeting please see my blog , where I have published my Twitter feed notes made during the meeting. The link is here I have tried to keep my notes as unemotional as possible. The address to reply to the consultation is:

School Admissions Consultation
Wokingham Borough Council
Children’s Services
Civic Offices
Shute End
Wokingham
RG40 1WN

You can also email your comments to: admissions.review@wokingham.gov.uk

The consultation can be linked to here.

At the risk of repeating myself please write to Wokingham as a matter of urgency.

If you would like help writing to Wokingham Borough Council the Maiden Erlegh Catchment Parents' Group is holding drop in meetings at Lady Of Peace Church Hall, Earley on Friday 21st January from 6pm to 9pm and at Park Church Hall, Palmer Park Ave, on Friday 4th February from 6pm to 9pm.

Way forward

Wokingham will close its consultation on the 14^th February. Its officials will collate the comments and amend their proposals in the light of the comments, or not. The final report will be submitted to the Council’s Admissions Panel and then proceed to their Cabinet for approval. Once the proposal have been approved, it can be referred to the Schools Adjudicator. I assume that there will be a chorus of complaint and the Adjudicator will have to review and finally approve the decision.

Wokingham are planning to have the process finished by April

I hope that this brings you up to date on the results of the meeting. It is clear that Wokingham is determined to see the process through and to push ahead with its plan.
Once again the best defence against the plan is to write in with your comments.

New Petition

In order for residents to have the opportunity to express their concerns about Wokingham's plans to exclude South Park's children from the school we have started a new petition. While the most important element is to write directly to Wokingham it would be useful if you could show your support in this way. The petition can be reached here.

Best regards

Reading's Tories Stand with Wokingham's Tories

2011-01-17T21:40:00.002Z


Reading Tory Cllr Isobel Balsdon supporting Wokingham's Tories

I have just come back from the Consultation meeting which Wokingham Borough Council held to hear residents views about their latest proposals for the Maiden Erlegh Catchment area.

I had a conversation with Cllr Rob Stanton leader of Wokingham Borough Council, who was completely committed to the plan. He really does believe that he is trying to do the best for Wokingham's and Reading's children.

It was a shame to see that Reading's Conservatives were supporting Wokingham Borough Council as you can see in the attached photo, Tory Reading Councillor Isobel Balsdon is see here supporting Wokingham's Tories as they work to exclude Reading's children from Maiden Erlegh.

A Campaigning Weekend

2011-01-16T20:06:00.000Z

Been a campaigning weekend. I was lucky enough to meet Ed Milliband on Friday and spent Sunday with colleagues canvassing in Newtown.

The Newtown canvass was part of a programme that is taking me across Park Ward knocking on residents' doors and listening to their concerns.

We picked up a lot of concerns in Newtown and will be following them up over the next few weeks. It was really enjoyable, apart from being blooming cold, knocking on doors. It was especially fun doing it with a group of dedicated Co Workers from Park and elsewhere.

We are knocking on doors throughout the ward so look out for us in your road. I always enjoy hearing residents' views and discussing with them how we can make Park Ward a better place to live.

Maiden Erlegh Campaign - The Campaign Continues

2011-01-13T16:59:00.002Z

Dear Neighbour

Happy New Year.

This year sees the Maiden Erlegh campaign enter a critical phase, with the final decision on the school’s catchment being made in April. Wokingham seems determined to push its proposals through despite strong opposition from residents in Reading and increasingly from residents in Wokingham.

There are many rumours as to whether the plans will be carried out or dropped and many neighbours have expressed their concerns about what the final result will be. All I can say is that having played a lot of team sports I was always taught that you need to play to the final whistle and keep playing until the end of the game. The situation is the same here, we need as a community to carry on campaigning until April when we will know whether we have won or lost.

Next Public Meeting

Wokingham are holding a new public meeting to hear the views of those effected by the new proposals.

This will be at Maiden Erlegh school on the 17^th Jan. 5.30pm to 7.00pm. It will be held in the main hall and I hope will be better run than the last one. Please come if you can and let Wokingham hear your views.

Wokingham has put a new guide to the new proposals on their website for residents to read. These can be accessed here . Please respond to Wokingham as soon as possible. The last day to respond is the 14th Feb.

Community Walk to Maiden Erlegh School on 17th January

Please show your support for keeping Maiden Erlegh a school for our children. Join our community walk to the public consultation at Maiden Erlegh. Find out more about Wokingham Borough Council's proposals and ask questions at the meeting which starts at 5:30pm

Details:
Meet at Earley fire station at 5:00pm on Wokingham Road to leave at 5:10pm. Please bring your children if possible. Invite your friends and neighbours.
Reading residents can join the walk at the Earley Fire Station and can meet up with those from the other side of the Three Tuns crossroads at Maiden Erlegh Drive at 5:15pm.

New Petition

We now have the opportunity to express their concerns about Wokingham's plans in a new petition. While the most important element is to write directly to Wokingham it would be useful if you could show your support in this way. The petition can be reached here.

Despite Reading Borough Council having welcomed Wokingham's proposals and decided not to take legal action in support of residents it is important that we continue to campaign until the end of the process. I will keep you up to date with developments as they happen and look forward to speaking to you as the issue develops

Best regards

Does this look right to you?

2011-01-12T17:43:00.000Z

A very shaky picture I know, but does this look right to you?

The picture shows a parent driving his children to a private school on Christchurch Road, I think the Abbey juding by the green uniforms of the girls in the back. He is taking an illegal left hand turn in to Crescent Road. Unfortunately he has miss judged the turn and is stuck on the bollards. He had to reverse backwards a couple of times to get by. This time he didn't decide to drive through the bollards or try and knock over a child in the process, but he was lucky I have seen a lot of near misses when drivers do this and on one occassion I saw a Taxi drive through the bollards. I see drivers do this at least once a day. It is incredible when you see it.

This cannot continue I have spoken to the local Police Inspector and have asked that the Police take action to stop this. One day someone will get hurt. I will keep pressing the Police to take action and I hope that this photo and others that I have taken an given them will be acted on soon.

Thanks for driving carefully-NOT

2011-01-07T09:32:00.000Z

As you may have noticed its hammering down with rain outside.

Reading's drivers, at least those along Crescent Road, seem to be reacting with characteristic zeal and verve. So much so that many of them, such as the driver of this 4 x 4 seem to have forgotten about everyone else's safety and comfort.

There's a bit of a puddle just where I lollipop and today saw nearly every driver, apart from a few honourable exceptions try to hit the puddle at maximum speed, causing maximum bow wave and splashing the maximum number of children and parents.

It was all a bit unpleasant for the poor people who were splashed and the drivers seemed to show no interest in the chaos they were causing as 5 year old children were doused in mucky road water. As you can probably tell I am more than slightly hacked off by the behaviour I saw and hope that having seen the picture you share my indignation.

The lesson for us all is, I guess, either be anti social and splash people or have a bit of humanity when you drive and slow down when you hit a huge puddle.

Happy New Year and Watch Out There is a Burglar About

2011-01-06T22:07:00.000Z

First of all Happy New Year, I hope 2011 is everything you want it to be.

I started the year with a meeting of the Neighbourhood Action Group, where local residents and Neighbourhood Watch coordinators get together with the Uni, the Police and Council to discuss issues that concern local residents.

The Police were concerned that residents are aware of the needs to protect their houses. They advise that E Reading is a bit of a burglary hotspot at the moment, despite other crimes going down. They have asked that residents make sure that their front doors, back doors and windows are properly locked. It sounds simple, however the Police told the meeting that burglars are trying front doors and finding many that are not properly secured. They also mentioned that officers are travelling around E Reading and Park Ward knocking on front doors, during the day, to ensure that the doors are secured.

The message is please, please, please, please, make sure your front door has a decent lock on it and is actually locked. It will cost a penny or two to get a decent lock, however it will save you money in the long run.

Please keep safe in 2011 and remember; Watch Out There's a Burglar about....

Happy Christmas and the annual religous thought for the year.

2010-12-24T23:51:00.000Z

So it’s Christmas, again, it seems to happen at the same time every year-can’t avoid it.

A friend of mine was telling me of their outrage when a close relative sent them a gospel of St. John and religious Christmas card for Christmas. They objected to this Bible bashing and they felt insulted by such overt evangelism. The very fact that my friend was so upset about someone trying to bring Christ in to Christmas set me thinking, how do I who is supposed to be a bible believing Christian bring a Christmas message in to the murky world of politics. Strangely this started me thinking about my political year and came to the conclusion that it had been a curate’s egg of one – Good in parts.

I started thinking that some things had gone really well this year, I enjoyed the General Election campaign in Henley and was pleased to come third, no really, I feel very proud to have completed an MA and graduated, other things however have not gone so well. I started to think about the encounters I have had with people this year, and here I found a more bruising vein. I recalled that I have had some difficult relationships, where I have let people down and others where people, often political opponents, seem to have gone out of the way to spill bile and anger in my direction.

This has formed my thoughts about Christmas and how do I, as someone who is politically active, show Christ in politics. Last year, at Christmas, I talked about the passage from Isaiah 61 but this year I am more interested in what Christs’ message is about forgiveness.

It seems to me that on both sides of the political fence there is a place for forgiveness. Despite the political ding dong and struggle I believe that if I want to re enter the political world I probably need to be able to slake off the slings and arrows that my political opponents throw.

Christ himself said, in what is known as the Lord’s prayer, (Luke 11):

“When you pray, say:
“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

The key section is, “ Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us….”

So forgiveness is available for all sides of the political debate and all of us actually. I hope you can forgive me for where I have failed and those of you who have thrown brick bats at me on their blogs, in Twitter or in their little cabals of tittle tattle around Reading and elsewhere, I forgive you.

Forgiveness is a dreadful thing, I think it entails remembering the thrown brick bat but giving responsibility for the hurt up to the Lord. It’s a hard thing to do, but to start 2011 with an unburdened soul I am constrained by the words of the Lord’s prayer to forgive and ask for forgiveness.

I do so in the hope that, as it says elsewhere in the Bible: “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us” but “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I am not perfect, no really I’m not, however I can go forward in to 2011 within the safety net of forgiveness.

So that’s what seems important at Christmas 2010 to me, I hope that you, where ever you are and what ever you are up to this Christmas, have a fantastic Christmas and come back to 2011 refreshed and ready for what ever is ahead of you.

Its the end of the Year, at last

2010-12-20T09:56:00.000Z

The end of 2010 is almost here. I have been so so busy over the last couple of weeks, door knocking throughout the Ward, campaigning on parking issues, and of course lollipoping.

In the last 2-3 weeks I have been fulfilling my duties as a School Governor of Alfred Sutton Primary school. I was pleased that we were able to appoint a new Deputy Head and enjoyed taking part in the interview process. I would like to congratulate the new Deputy Head. I know she will make a fantastic Deputy Head. There was a meeting of the Parents' Forum, of which I am the Vice Chair, and the Head. I am so proud of the Parents' Forum. Of all the things I have been involved with in the last 2-3 years the establishment of a Parents' Forum at Alfred Sutton. The Chair and Secretary and I have made the Forum a great communications and action channel between the school and parents.

Finally all the Governors were invited to attend the school plays. I don't know which other Governors went to the performances, however I was able to go to last Tuesday's performance. It was great, the children and staff had worked so hard and I was privileged to be able to be a spectator.

When door knocking many parents had questions about Maiden Erlegh, and Cllr Jon Hartley and I have been able to brief parents as to whats going on. There will be a public meeting at Maiden Erlegh on the 17th January between 5.30 and 7.00pm, please attend if you can. Try not to laugh to hard when you are there.....

And finally 2. I was looking at the photos and video I have accumulated over the year of the campaigns I have been involved in. I thought it would make a fitting memory to add here. Hope it reminds you of the year and the campaigns you have been involved in.

Vote Lost, Lib Dems betray their principles

2010-12-09T22:33:00.000Z

The Lib Dems sold the youth of the nation down the river today. The vote for tuition fees was lost and the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition have condemned English young people to a life of debt.

The violence in London can only be regretted and should not have happened, The Lib Dems have damaged politics, not only have they gone back on their pledge, given at an election, but they have proved all those who say politicians cannot be trusted right.

I was on the Reading demo yesterday and am pleased to say it was peaceful, well reasoned and made a strong point, You can see me in the middle of the shot with the silly hat. Campaigning against Tuition Fees is connected with campaigning about the Maiden Erlegh catchment area. It is about equity in education and ensuring that all young people have access to good fair access to education.

The Conservatives and Lib Dems have shown that they are against equality locally and nationally. We know where they stand now and we can react accordingly.

Dumping the Debt

2010-12-08T18:33:00.000Z

Its a Wednesday so it must be demo day. Marched with Reading Uni students from the Uni to the Town Hall to meet up with Reading's MPs.

We brought our "debt" with us to dump in front of them. The students wanted to show Reading's 2 MP's that they won't accept the proposed raising of tuition fees from £3,000 to £9,000.

Unfortunately the MP's didn't turn up, I think they may have been hiding with Reading's Lib Dem Councillors, having a "constructive dialogue".

I was impressed at the quality of the speeches and especially pleased to see Labour Cllr, Rachel Eden, taking part. She brought her baby with her, she was truely fighting for the next generation.

Parliament votes on Thursday and there is a large demo outside Parliament to remind the Lib Dem MP's what they said before the election. Unfortunately I can't go as I have to work and am very dissappointed. What will happen, I don't know, but I do know that if Clegg and his chums vote for an increase in tuition fees there will be a lot of very cross students voting against them in constituencies across the country.

Uni Stops Being a Good Neighbour

2010-12-07T11:14:00.000Z

The University has decided to bar residents from campus over the Christmas Weekend.

It appears that they want to assert their rights over the land, in case residents decide that we want to try and get the site declared a village green or similar.

This means that residents will not have access to campus on the 26th and 27th Dec. This will cut in to residents' prime holiday time, when we will use the campus to walk off those Christmas Calories.

While I understand the Uni feels it has to assert its rights, it seems unfair not to advise residents. As the image shows, the Uni is advising Academics, staff and students. They are not keeping it a secret.

Should residents engage in a mass trespass? An interesting thought. There are plenty of gaps in the fencing which we could be used.

What I am sure of is that every resident that lives around the campus, will have an interest in this and should write the Uni as a matter of urgency. This may be the thin end of the wedge and the Uni has form for trying to exclude its neighbours from the site. They suddenly cut access to the Sibly Hall site and built a large fence almost over night to keep residents out.

So write now to avoid disappointment over Christmas.

All Students Want For Christmas is a No Vote.

2010-12-06T19:17:00.000Z

I have just received the attached from the University Students' Union, of its campaign before Parliamentary vote where the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition will move their bill to increase student fees from £3000 to £9000 per year. This being despite the Lib Dems stating before the election that they would remove student fees:

Reading University Students’ Union encourages all Reading Students to unite with the people of Reading on the ‘Local Day of Action’ Wednesday 8th December, one day before the fees vote in parliament.

Once again, we would like to show our opposition to the cuts to Higher Education and the plans to triple fees to £9,000.

We will be congregating at 2pm outside the RUSU building and then walking into town to meet others outside Reading Town Hall at 3pm. On arrival we will be ‘Dumping our Debt’ in the metaphorical sense in the form of filled bin bags. So bring along your filled bin liner and write your campaign message on it.

We encourage you to dress up in an attempt to draw as much attention to ourselves as possible. E.g. zombies, Santas, angels, clowns, graduation gowns etc. Bring along your banners and posters and have your chants ready!

We want to send a strong message to our 2 local MPs, Rob Wilson and Alok Sharma that…

All we want for Christmas is a NO vote!

Just Saw This and It made me laugh

2010-12-01T23:27:00.003Z

It's Cold Out There

2010-12-01T23:18:00.000Z

It is so cold at the moment. If you have been following my Tweets I have been giving weather updates for people who are bringing their children to school.

I have borrowed my daughter's hat, as shown in my photo, to keep warm. She is not happy to see I have it, but if you have to stand outside for 40 mins at 8.30am it is vital.

Been meeting with Park residents all day. Started off with a cup of coffee after school. We talked about the Maiden Erlegh issue and Alfred Sutton. Lunch was spent with students chatting over Nick Clegg's betrayal of England's students I saw a great cartoon in the Guardian. Ended the afternoon with door knocking in Newtown. The residents raised an interesting issue, which I will discuss later.

Its almost too cold to talk to residents, but as with the bad weather last year, the extreme cold brings out the best in people and they want to chat. Must remember to take a flask with me next time......

Wokingham's New Catchment Proposal -Bad News

2010-11-26T09:00:00.001Z

I have just sent the email below to the peole who signed the Maiden Erlegh petition.

Dear Neighbour

Conservative led Wokingham Borough Council has now responded to the comments made by you and I to their initial consultation regarding the Maiden Erlegh catchment area. You may have read that Reading’s Tory Council administration and MP have welcomed the plan, however reading the documentation it is clear that the new proposals will leave Park Ward parents worse off rather than better off.

The new admission system effectively means that Maiden Erlegh will fill up from Lower Earley to Maiden Erlegh. This means that while South Park houses nominally remain in the Maiden Erlegh catchment area our children will be at the bottom of the pile for admission to Maiden Erlegh, their local school.

Each area is in a band which shows where children living in the new “joint” catchment will go to school. Tory Wokigham’s Education Officers have stated that, based on current admission estimates Maiden Erlegh will be full by the 1000m band on the map.

Tory Wokingham has produced the map below to explain the new catchment system. Looks simple doesn’t it?

Note: South Park is marked and its boundaries are approximate, they should not be taken as an indication of whether individual houses are in or out of the 1000m zone.

As you can see 99% of all the homes in South Park are outside the 1000m zone.

As you can imagine many of those who have examined this map are extremely frustrated to hear or read than our Tory MP and Councillors have welcomed this proposal while it excludes South Parks children.

Next Steps

Wokingham have said that they plan to consult on this proposal. I would suggest that all those who commented at the last consultation write again to Wokingham expressing their dissatisfaction with their plan and proposing either a return to the Status Quo or a shared catchment based on simple linear distance from Maiden Erlegh.

As this situation develops I will, of course, keep you informed. Please feel free to forward this email to your friends and neighbours who might not receive this mail and feel free to email me back with any questions or comments you have.

Best regards

A Gateway Out Of The Gloom

2010-11-25T08:49:00.001Z

After the gloom of this week's news on Wokingham's catchment area proposal, a good event is happening today.

The Neighbourhood Action Groups, I'm a member of the Uni and Redlands group, in conjunction with the Council are starting to look at ways in which Cemy Junction can be improved. As a resident of the Junc since the early 90's this is something I have wanted for a long time. It is a great little spot, with unique shops, like the computer shop, Islamic shop and sowing machine shop all around.Most of us use the Coop daily and of course Wycliffe Baptist. The Baptist Church and the Coop have been keys to the community for over a century and it is great in the summer to be part of an outdoor Wycliffe service on the forecourt. I can't remember if I blogged about the Baptism that was held in the summer outside and on the forecourt, but it had to be seen to be believed.

The Junc is simply amazing. Anyone who hasn't had the chance to chill out and stroll around the Cemetery has missed out. If you are lucky you might even see the deer.

So the junction is the only place where you can get some peace and tranquility, spot real wild life, go to church and pop out of a pint of milk all at the same time. It deserves to be improved and I look forward to the NAG plying its part in the improvement.

Pressure on the Uni Pays Off

2010-11-24T09:54:00.000Z

I am glad to say that the constant pressure which I and others have been putting on the Uni over the last few years has resulted in a new attitude to vandalism by the Uni. It appears that students have been vandalising cars on Eastern Ave, again.

As a result of this and a high level of vandalism on campus, especially the damaging of newly planted trees the Vice Chancellor, Gordon Marshall, has issued each student with a warning letter. While it won't stop the vandalism in the short term, it does show a significant movement on behalf of the Uni, especially when compared to when I first started having dealings with them in the 90's.

The VC's letter is attached below.

Dear Student

Recent vandalism and criminal damage

I am taking the unusual step of contacting all students regarding a spate of vandalism that has occurred on campus since the beginning of term. The majority of students will not have been involved and I apologise for including them in this mailing. However, it appears that a small group of students are the perpetrators of these crimes, to the detriment of the University as a whole.

The main damage which has occurred is to the boundary hoardings of the Childs Hall demolition site along the pathway towards Foxhill Gate. Eighteen panels had to be replaced following the most recent incident. Newly planted trees have also been snapped in half and will have to be replaced. The damage to the hoardings compromises the safety and security of the site as well as costing the University money. I have also been contacted by local residents about criminal damage to vehicles in Eastern Avenue. This again appears to be linked to students either going to or returning from the 3Sixty club in RUSU.

Such vandalism is viewed very seriously by the University staff and the great majority of students themselves. It damages our reputation and requires us to re-direct limited resources to ensure that it doesn’t re-occur. Security services are increasing their patrols in the area and providing additional security signage along the demolition-site boundary. Anyone caught vandalising University or local residents’ property will be reported to the police and disciplined within the University according to our Regulations for Conduct.

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone witnessing such behaviour could report it immediately to Security Services on the emergency number: 0118 378 6300. Alternatively, if you have any information about previous incidents, please contact Security services: 0118 378 7799.

Thank you.

Professor Gordon Marshall,

Vice-Chancellor

Cllr Ralph Tries to justify the unjustifiable

2010-11-21T17:31:00.000Z

Cllr Mark Ralph is meeting the Parents Group this evening to try and justify why he has welcomed the new Wokingham proposals for the Maiden Erlegh catchment area, despite them virtually excluding Park's children from the school.

It will be a tough job. I remember sitting in meetings where he, and Cllr Balsdon, said they were foresquare behind parents and our fight. Despite this he has led the Condem coalition to support a proposal that is so blatently anti Reading children that it would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.

How will he do? Time will tell but I imagine he will have a difficult job. I will report after the meeting, could be an interesting one.

Does RBC want to price the motorist off the road?

2010-11-20T09:43:00.000Z

Having my breakfast munchies infront of the BBC news and was surprised to see that local councils have approached the Condem govt to raise their parking fines to the same level as Londons.

This reminided me that RBC has installed new parking meters in parts of the centre of the town, where parking was previously free. The parking meters are massively expensive and now make a quick trip in to town a very very expensive pastime. I've used the meters in South St and was shocked to see how much you pay for a 1/4 of an hour.

It is also interesting that RBC seems to be ordering its Parking Attendants to fine Newtown residents for parking near their homes. For anyone who lives in the area the Parking Attendants' attitude is difficult to understand. Residents have to park on corners, double yellows and on the curb, because there is no where else to park if you come home from work after about 8pm. If the attendants came round at 10am, well perhaps fair enough but they are coming round and ticketing early, and I mean early, in the morning, say at 6am or late and I mean late in the evening, say at 10pm or later.

So it seems to me that our Condem RBC hates the motorist, it likes to fine them at home, and price them off the streets in town.

I like my car, however in Reading I think I will stick to my bike

Torys Let Park's Children Over Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area

2010-11-19T19:24:00.002Z

Came home from work to read Wokingham's proposed response to the Catchment Area Catchment area.

This response, which will be so eagerly awaited by Park's parents, has come down completely in favour of Lower Earley's children. It appears that Wokingham has completely ignored Park parents' and residents' comments. As I read it, the proposal places children, who live further away from Maiden Erlegh in Lower Erlegh, ahead of those who live in Park. This is because of a complicated distance calculation that will stop Lower Erlegh's children having to go to Bulmershe. I am going to spend my evening studying the document in detail. I will make a fuller comment over the weekend.

It is a shame that Tory MP Rob Wilson, and other welcomed the report which clearly discriminates against Park children.

I will be working with Cllr Jon Hartley, the Parents and the Residents of Park to make sure that everyone is fully informed and is able to respond to the consultation in a measured and calm way. We will continue to fight this to the very end.

Both Rob Wilson MP and Cllr Wazir Husain, who is after all a Wokingham resident, both refused to sign the petition in support of the campaign. It is now clear why, they are conniving with Wokingham to discriminate against their own residents. While they talked about supporting Park's residents they have basically allowed us to be stitched up by Wokingham.

Reading Response to Maiden Erlegh Consultation

2010-11-16T09:30:00.000Z

As you will know that Condem RBC decided not not to consult counsel about the Maiden Erlegh catchment area.

They have however commented on the consultation and proposed that South Park become part of the joint Maiden Erlegh/Bulmershe catchment area.

Download the RBC letter here.

They also proposed that the centre, from which distance be measured be moved from Maiden Erlegh school to a point somewhere in the centre of Lower Earley.

This proposal change in the central point might benefit those parents living in the Green/Talfourd/Melrose area but would disadvantage parents living in roads further away, with your children's chances of getting in to Maiden Erlegh declining the closer you live to Eastern Avenue. The red line shows the approximate line of the Maiden Erlegh catchment area and the yellow line shows effect of moving the centre from which distances are measured.

So those roads physically closer to Lower Earley will be better off than those further away. You can read the details of the RBC proposal here, see point 1.2.

It is clear that those children living closest to Wilderness Road might benefit from the proposal but the RBC proposal it will make getting in to Maiden Erlegh a lottery for those families living further away from the school.

Two Minutes Silence

2010-11-15T22:01:00.001Z

My Grandfather's WWII Medals

Yesterday was Remembrance Sunday. I spent the morning with Wycliffe Baptist Church, Cemetery Junction, where we observed the 2 minutes silence as part of the service. It was good to be with friends and Park Ward neighbours remembering those who gave their lives for our freedom in the two world wars and who continue give their lives as they serve our country in Afganistan and elsewhere.

I believe it is important that post war generations continue to remember the cost in lives that war caused. While when I was younger war seemed to be far away, despite the long running conflict in Northern Ireland, conflict and war death, it seems to me, has come every closer in the last 10 years.

I, like the majority of people today, have never been in a war or in the armed forces. However World War II had a strong effect on my family, my father was evacuated to his grandmother's in Wales and came back a first language Welsh speaker. One of my grandfather's was conscripted and didn't come back home until about 1946, his medals are shown in the photo, and my mother was less than a month old when Hitler sent the Luftwaffe to London for the heavist air raid of 1940.

So the war is in the background of my family. As I look around I see friends and meet people who have served in Afganistan or Iraq and I remember walking around Guildford the week after the IRA pub bombings in the 1970's so see a strong need to be thankful for the sacrifice of men and women who die and are maimed in war.

As a 17 year old I discovered the poems of Wilfred Owen and the other WWI poets. I was also fortunate to go the Verdun battlefield and see the largest graveyard in the world.

So it was good to stand for 2 minutes and contemplate what peace costs and how many people have suffered inorder for me to be able to write this blog in peace and my children to grow up, I hope, never knowing what war is.

Finally Wilfred Owen's most famous poem, Ducle Et Decorum Est.

Students Will Speak Peace Unto All the nations

2010-11-13T19:16:00.000Z

The fallout from the Student protest continues, it now appears that, according to the Guardian, Clegg had already abandoned his peldge not to raise tuition fees 2 weeks before the General Election

I was able to put the students' case on Radio 4's Any Answers programme this afternoon. Fortunately I was the first speaker on and could make the point that students feel betrayed by the Lib Dems and very worried by the Condems' fee increase.

To hear me on Any Answers click here. I am the first caller.

Oh Dear, The Lib Dems Unravel

2010-11-12T22:08:00.000Z

Now that the riot is over

2010-11-11T21:52:00.002Z

This was the sight that greeted me when I arrived at Millbank during the student march yesterday. I was there right at the begining at the disturbance when the glass was smashed and left the scene just before the offices were stormed.

I can only condem the occupation of the building. It served no purpose and ensured that the occupation became the central discussion of the march and completely spoilt the reputation of what was a tremendous event. Why was I marching, partly because I am a Research Student and a member of the NUS, partly to ensure that my children are not saddled with fees of over £9,000 a year if they decide to go to Uni. My eldest daughter will go off to Uni in 2012. If she goes she will be hit by the first year of the increased fees. She has already been targeted by the Condems and done away with EMA, which might have supported her while she is at Sixth Form College. While this might seem to be a petty thing, living where I do, however having returned to Uni, things are tight.

The majority of students seemed to be former Lib Dem voters, who enthusiastically voted Lib Dem in May and now feel completely betrayed. It is clear that the Lib Dems have really really enraged the student vote. They/we are very very angry. Here is a selection of the posters that I saw at the march. Note if you are of a delicate position, please be aware there are lots of rude words.

10.11.10 We Will March Posters

Those that follow my Twitter feed, Mckrich, will know that I also noted down some of the chants. These also made it clear that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems may have a fight on their hands to retain there MP's and Councillors in seats where there are large student communities.

Jess Lazarczyck

To emphasise this point attached is an interview I did with Jess Lazarczyk, RUSU President, for the student radio station Junction 11.

To hear the interview I did with Jess click here

The papers have described the the event as the end of consensus. I am not sure of this, but what I am sure of is that despite the idiotic invasion of Tory Headquarter, I am proud of being part of this demo and will continue to campaign, where ever possible, to make sure that the Condems are held to account for the damage they do to our Nation and to fight the damage that the local Condem administration does to Reading.

Another Day Another Blockage

2010-11-06T16:37:00.000Z

Imagine my joy yesteday when I came to the last 10 mins of my last lollipoping shift of the week and most people had smiled, all the cyclists had stopped and no one had been run over.

Imagine how this joy evaporated when a large 3663 lorry from their depot in Abingdon rocked up and parked immediately opposite me and blocked half of Crescent Road and all of the pavement. He managed to force a couple of parents in to the road and even had a go at splatting a couple of cyclists.

Imagine again my frustration when I went up to the cab to ask him if he knew there was a school and he was stopping children being able to get to school safely and he basically told me that he had a delivery to to and I could push off.

Not a good way to end the shift, but lo I remembered that I had my mobile in my pocket and since no one could cross at my crossing, because he'd blocked it I range his depot and chatted to the Transport Manager. The Transport Manager was very polite and quiet contrite and said he would make sure it would happen again, but couldn't it all have been avoided if the driver had been a tadge more thoughtful. Ho Hum lets see what happens next week.

Responses From Wokingham about Maiden Erlegh

2010-10-30T13:01:00.000+01:00

Here are 2 links to a letter sent by David Armstrong, Policy and Schools Access Officer, Children's Services Wokingham Borough Council, in response to the questions I raised at the consultation meeting on the 29th September.

Page 1
Page 2

I hate to agree with BoJo

2010-10-29T23:10:00.000+01:00

Well what can I say I agree with BoJo, what am I as the former Labour Parliamentary candidate in his old Parliamentary consistuency going to do.

He has warned that the Conservative's Housing Benefit plans will cause Kosovan "ethnic cleansing" of people on benefit in London. It was revealed that inner London Boroughs as looking to the outer areas for cheaper accomodation for its housing benefit tenants.

This will mean those that live in the outer boroughs will be pushed out to places like Reading, putting pressure on the rented market in Reading....So Reading will be pressured by London's distressed. This coupled with the Government's and the Conservative/Lib Dems removal of controls on Houses in Multiple Occupation.

How does this affect Park Ward.....it will mean that there is pressure on the already heated rented property market in Reading. The students will be fighting for property with families displaced from the outer areas of London and there will be no control....how do you think this will end.

This makes the Tory clams of "we are all in it together" seem very very hollow. As usual they are attacking the weakest in society while they try and defend their own. It smacks of the worst sort of protectionism and I expect that we will see more of the same.

In the meantime, and I really do hate to say this, well done BoJo thanks for standing up against your party.

What Does the Man on the no. 17 think of the Spending Review and the Browne Review

2010-10-24T18:09:00.000+01:00

I saw a simple illustration of the effects of the Tory's and Lib Dems Spending Review and Browne Spending Review in my local Indian take away. Talking to the owner I asked how things were. He said something like, since the Tories brought in their new policies, people don’t want to spend their money.

The Spending review is terrifying, Have the people who thought this up ever been unemployed? Have they tried to live on £63.50 a week. I have tried it recently and its tough, imagine what it will be like if 500,000 public servants are on £63.50 and then another 450,000 workers from the private sector join them. Madness, deperate madness.....

So a little illustration of what happens when the government blithely decides to cut its funding.

As you may know I am the lollipopman at Alfred Sutton. I have a manager who is responsible for improving road safety in Reading. This member of staff manages the lollipop people and makes sure that we are safe and looked after. She also organises cycle training for children and I am sure has lots of other duties that make fewer people are killed on the streets of Reading. Maybe its quiet work, maybe its not on the TV everyday.

This job has been cut, the woman who's job it is is being made redundant. Immediately no one will see the cut but as the number of people hurt and killed crossing the road in Reading rises and there are fewer and fewer lollipop people as the conditions we work under get worse and worse then we will ask why isn't Reading Borough Council doing more to protect vulnerable people in the streets.

The answer to this question will be "oh yes the Tories and Lib Dems cut the job and abandoned the children of Reading to save money." Thats what the Spending Review will do on the streets of Reading.

The Browne review is the same, the Tory/Lib Dem coalition are looking for all sorts of fig leafs but their acceptance of doubling or trebling of undergraduate fees, will simply put young people off coming to uni. If you were faced with £7,000 or more fees before you even thought of living costs, you would probably think twice about Uni. Imagine a £21,000 debt before you have bought a curry, drunk a beer or attended a lecture. Add to that concern about interest rate charges and the fear you might not get a job because of Nick and Dave’s double dip recession.

So as my friend at the curry house says, people don’t want to go out anymore because of the Tories and Lib Dems...

Councillor Swaine has difficulties with Twitter

2010-10-20T15:27:00.000+01:00

Councillor Swaine has, I believe denied Twittering during the Council meeting. Shame really as we have got hold of his Twitter Feed and here it is. Poor old Councillor Swaine already prejudiced before he walks in to the room and attacks members of the public. Thankfully one of the residents there last night has complained about his behaviour and a good thing too.

Never mind, all I can say is: he's just a bit pathetic really

Warren Swaine's Tweets
waswasere Warren Swaine

Naughty @waswasere "caught" tweeting council debate. Labour still trying to manage media agenda.

12 hours ago

waswasere Warren Swaine

I think I'm going to get a hard Paddington stare from Linda Fort for sniggering at the back.

12 hours ago

waswasere Warren Swaine

Jon Hartley says that talking to the administration to get a consensus position is "outrageous". Typical Labour.

12 hours ago

waswasere Warren Swaine

Peter Jones admits that #rdg Labour didn't attend a meeting in March over Maiden Erlegh. Maybe it got stuck in their junkmail filter again.

12 hours ago

waswasere Warren Swaine

#rdg Labour have their hecklers in to interrupt a maiden speech. Shame on them.

13 hours ago

waswasere Warren Swaine

Man who presided over inadequate secondary school provision in#rdg complaining about lack of places. He has no shame.

13 hours ago

waswasere Warren Swaine @

@Nowtas Richard McKenzie here - will need silver bullets.

14 hours ago

»waswasere Warren Swaine

Heading into the council offices to prepare to fend off the forces of evil. Or #rdg labour party as everyone else knows them.

Tories and Liberal Democrats on Reading Borough Council Fail their Voters.

2010-10-19T23:30:00.002+01:00

This is a picture of the residents of Park Ward before the Council Meeting this evening, where we were bringing the Petition, to ask the Council to support us, Asking two questions, and Park Ward Councillor Jon Hartley was bringing a motion asking the Council to support the residents campaign and be willing if necessary to take legal advice in order to threaten Wokingham with legal action.

As you can see we are all relatively happy and looking forward to a positive meeting. Unfortunately the Tories and the Liberal Democrats combined to thwart the cross party consensus that has been built up and decided to attack members of the Parents group. I am very cross about the meeting, and may have been a little intemperate with my comments in the meeting, so apologise ,in public, if I spoke out of turn.

Petition Presentation.
I presented the petition, and asked the Council to support the more than 600 people who had taken the time to sign it. I asked a simple question, how far was the Tory/Lib Dem Council willing to go in support of parents. Councillor Ralph, lead Councillor for Education, hedged his answer and began to attack the Labour Party, This being despite the all party consensus about the issue that had previously been established.

Questions to Council
This is where it started to really kick off, Karly asked a reasonable question and got a non committal answer. I asked what the Council would do to support the campaign and Cllr Ralph indicated that he would reply to the consultation, but not threaten legal action. He the proceeded to attack me. Very nice, very cowardly, very weak.

Motion to Council
Cllr Jon Hartley had kindly arranged with the Mayor to bring the motion forward so we could hear it at a reasonable time. Jon proposed the motion and Cllr White seconded it. They made clear and cogent arguments as to why RBC should support the motion.

Then something odd happened, instead of Park Ward's Tory Councillor standing up and supporting the motion, which he had had in his hands for nearly 3 weeks, Cllr Ralph stood up and presented a counter Motion which removed any attempt to seek legal advice and which refused to threaten legal action.

And even stranger thing happened,Liberal Democrat Cllr Rebecca Rye, despite saying in an email that she supported parents, stood up and supported Cllr Ralph's weaker motion. In effect she went back on her word and refused to support the parents.

And then something even stranger happened. We were stabbed in the back by the two Tory Councillors who made as if they supported the campaign, that being Park Tory Cllr Hussain and Thames Tory Cllr Balsdon. Balsdon even had the gall to shout at a Green Road resident. Park Tory Hussain, stood up and simply supported his fellow Tories, while trying to soften the blow by soft soaping, myself, Jane and the other parent campaigners.

And then it got worse. The Tories, seemed to enjoy attacking the Parents in the public gallery, and especially me. They seemed to think that the campaign was some kind of political football rather than the cross party and cross community effort that it had been hitherto.

The Lib Dems were even worse. They divided their time between, attacking the parents, attacking the Labour group, attacking the Greens, or was that the Tories who attacked the Greens, I forget now. When they weren't spreading bile about the place they were texting or on Facebook. The two worst offenders were, Cllr Swaine, (Katesgrove), Cllr Daisy Benson ( Redlands). Benson was very rude, because she was actively laughing at the parents..

So the meeting dragged to a close. Balsdon attacking members of the public, Hussain, letting his constituents down, the Lib Dems who promised so much changing their tune and laughing at residents...No change their then.

We fight on.

Winston Churchill had a phrase when things had gone against him, that was Keep Buggering On. That is what we have to do, keep lobbying Reading Borough Council to support its residents, if necessary with legal action, keep lobbying Wokingham Borough Council, who sent a spy to the meeting, and keep responding to the consultation.

At The Council Meeting

2010-10-19T19:37:00.001+01:00

Am sitting in the Council chamber. Have just sat down after presenting the Maiden Erlegh petition to council and asking two questions. I was shocked and dismayed that Tory Cllr Ralph tried to dodge any questions about whether the Council will support residents with legal action. I was also shocked to hear him try and blame the Labour Party for the problem and deviated from the cross party work which we have been trying to build up. Very disappointing and very worrying.

Why Get Nervous Lollipoping

2010-10-18T17:00:00.001+01:00

This morning started with a lot of excitement, which was good because I had been up late the night before watching the "Dambusters".

Here's a little film of a typical Monday on Crescent Road looks like. Throw in to this traffic idiots on push bikes who ride on the pavement and boys from Reading School who decide to drive through the crossing it all gets a little stimulating.

I mention Reading School, because one of their boys, well bred, supposedly intelligent decided that he would ignore me standing in the middle of the road and cycle at me, at children and at parents all of which were crossing the road. You can get an idea of how busy it was and how difficult it can be to help people across the road. I rang Reading School to discuss this with them, I spoke to the Head's secretary who promised someone would ring me back today, Monday. Unfortunately he couldn't be bothered to call me. As a consequence Reading School gets a dishonourable mention on the blog.

The Maiden Erlegh Petition Update

2010-10-17T22:06:00.002+01:00

The Funniest Clegg/Student Fee Vid So Far

2010-10-17T21:40:00.002+01:00

Poor old Nick Clegg........the vids just keep getting funnier and better produced. If nothing else "Nasty Nick" is letting students get some work experience producing videos...

Gov't trackers - update 14th Oct | YouGov

2010-10-14T22:54:00.001+01:00

Gov't trackers - update 14th Oct YouGov

Wouldn't You Like to Go to University

2010-10-14T21:29:00.000+01:00

I have recently become a Research Student at Reading University. So I have been taking an interest in the Condems plans for Student Finance. Not amused to find that my fees may double, and then on top of that when Sophie goes to Uni., she may have to pay £7,000 a year just for tuition fees. Could be an interesting couple of years financially.

More amused to see that the Lib Dems., who had campaigned against student fees at the General Election, have changed their minds and now support it. Amused, actually I lie, livid.

So am happy to pass on this video made by the NUS pointing out Nick Cleggs duplicity.

If you tolerate this- Your Campaign Will be Next

2010-10-13T15:46:00.000+01:00

Tuesday 19th October will show whether the new Condem administration is really willing to support its residents or not.

The meeting will be dominated by the Maiden Erlegh catchment issue. I am going to present the petition to the Council and ask the Condems to support Park's residents. There will be a number of questions from residents about the issue and then Labour Park Councillor will bring a motion to the Council that will bind it to support the campaign with legal action.

This is a vital moment for the campaign. It appears that Cllr Mark Ralph is wobbling in his support and is not willing to spend the money to bring in the lawyers.

Cllr Hartley's motion says:

Motion
This Council wholeheartedly supports the campaign by parents in east Reading to oppose

Wokingham Borough Council’s plans to exclude local children from attending their local secondary

school, Maiden Erlegh.

Maiden Erlegh has been the local school for families in the Whiteknights area of Park ward for (more

than two) decades, ever since Berkshire County Council closed the Alfred Sutton secondary school.

In the past, when Wokingham politicians have suggested that access to Maiden Erlegh should be

restricted to Wokingham based children; Reading Borough Council has made it clear that any such

proposals would be strongly opposed.

Therefore this Council resolves to:
1. Ask the Chief Executive to write on behalf of RBC to make clear our rejection of

Wokingham’s plans and to write to the Reading East MP to seek his support for local

families. Seek Counsel’s advice on the legal case for challenging Wokingham’s proposals.

2. Pursue all avenues to maintain the current education choices that are available to Reading’s

residents.

I urge all Reading residents to lobby Cllr Ralph. his email address is mark.ralph@reading.gov.uk remember if he abandons Park's children. What will he do for other children in Reading.

If you are available on Tuesday, please come to the Council meeting to support the campaign and make your voice heard. We have shown Wokingham how strong people's feelings are and now we have to make sure that Mark Ralph and the Condems understand.

As the Manic Street Preachers once said, "If you tolerate this then your children will be next"

Harvest Festival on Cemetery Junction

2010-10-10T14:18:00.000+01:00

Today was Harvest Festival at my Church, Wycliffe Baptist Church, Cemetery Junction. The video above is of part of the service. ( The dreadful male voice you can hear is mine, sorry).This year the Harvest was celebrated in the style of the Jewish Celebration of the Feast of the Tabernacles, where the people brought water to pour on to the alter and branches to wave.

I often have issues with church, I am not sure how supportive Church members really are of Christians involved in politics, and especialy Labour politics, however it was uplifting and challenging to think about all that, we as a community have been through this year and the blessings we have received. At least I found it so. We spent some time reading the 10 Commandments, which is a challenge to all of us, and me especially. At the end of each commandment we were reminded that there is the opportunity for forgiveness when we break the commandments, see John 3:16 in the Bible for further details.

I put the 10 commandments here for your information, it is a Sunday after all.

1. "You shall have no other gods before me.

2. "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3. "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

4."Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

5. "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

6. "You shall not murder.

7. "You shall not commit adultery.

8. "You shall not steal.

9. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

10. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

A Long Week Lollipoping

2010-10-09T12:18:00.000+01:00

Ok can you spot the deliberate mistake in this photo?

Its not the car, its not Bali's shop, its not the Newsagents, its the sign. This is the sign that says no right hand turn at the junction of Crescent Road and Wokingham Road. It has been banged out of true by drivers who have illegally turned right, where the right hand turn is banned.

This sign has summed up some of the problems which face your Alfred Sutton Lollipop man on an average day.

Every morning I face, people who illegally turn left from the Wokingham Road in to Crescent Road. The curb has been set to make this difficult and indeed they often ground on the curb and have to reverse back in to the traffic to make the turn. They at least try to look sheepish as they come around the corner.

On the other hand there are those who make the illegal right turn, this week I even saw a Reading Borough Council dustcart make this turn.

I am there to help people across the road, amazingly a large number of drivers appear to want to speed up when they see me walk in to the road. At least twice I have had to call out to parents and children to make sure that they don't step in to the road because I wasn't sure that the car, infront of which I was standing, didn't appear to want to stop.

Occassionally I get tradesmen who park up to get sandwiches at the sandwich shop and dump their vehicle in front of the school. Last week a trademan did this and gave me a lot of verbal when I asked him to move. Fortunately when I called his boss he took it very seriously and said he would discipline his driver. I was very impressed at the boss's attitude.

So in to this mix add rain and fog this week and the fact that a number of parents seem to encourage their children to run in to the middle of the road. I had the situation this week where a father was running late and dropped his child infront of the school, on the opposite side of the road. He then told his child to run to school. The poor child aged 7 or 8 did as he was asked and ran straight infront of a car. Luckily the approaching driver had his wits about him and stopped in time, after I had shouted a warning.

I went to discuss the issue with the Father, who after all just encouraged his son to commit suicide, and the Father had the gall to ask me to open one of the car's passenger doors, on the road side, as it had child locks and the other child couldn't get out of the car. All I can say is that I was flabbergasted.

When Did Reading Borough Council Know About the Maiden Erlegh Consultation?

2010-10-01T21:34:00.001+01:00

Questions have been asked about when Reading Borough Council knew that Wokingham Borough Council were going to propose changes to the Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area.

Jon Hartley, Labour Councillor; Park Ward, has asked Reading Officers to confirm when they were aware of the changes. They confirm that Wokingham advised them in June that changes to the catchment area were proposed. While not for now, as we are where we are, however this date asks questions of Tory Councillor Mark Ralph's commitment to Reading's residents as this would have been one of the first things across his desk in coming to his role as Lead Councillor for education.

The officer's full response to Jon's question is attached below for your information.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Wright, Anna
Date: 30 September 2010 13:35

Subject: RE: Reading Borough Council involvement in Wokingham's

Designated Area Review

To: "Hartley, JonX">

Dear Jon

I have consulted with colleagues and can clarify that we were invited to

an initial meeting at Wokingham to discuss their review on 26 March

2010. Noone from Reading went to that meeting as it was billed as a set

up meeting covering terms of reference etc. The papers were circulated,

but no proposals for change were contained in them and the meeting just

covered background information.

The next meeting officers attended was on 13 May 2010 when the over

subscription criteria were discussed and the focus was on Wokingham town

centre schools in the main, in particular Holt and Forest.

The meeting concerning designated areas for all Wokingham secondary

schools was held on 10 June 2010 and at this meeting we first learned

Wokingham's plans for changing the DA of Maiden Erlegh.

Best wishes

Anna

........................................................................

...............

Anna Wright

Director of Education and Children's Services

Reading Borough Council

How Not To Run a Consultation, How Not To Run a Meeting

2010-09-30T15:21:00.002+01:00

Community Walk

A rainy Wednesday afternoon on the Wokingham Road, found a large group of wet residents who were marshalling together to march up to Maiden Erlegh school, to take part in the consultation meeting Wokingham had arranged to discuss the proposed changes to the Maiden Erlegh catchment area.

Issy and I standing in the rain holding up our banners

The weather was awful, but despite this the spirit of the group was fantastic, we chatted, laughed and looked forward to what would be a firey meeting. My youngest daughter was one of the main banner holders and my eldest was taking photos for the group. It is great to see them getting involved in a campaign that affects them both and about which they feel very strongly.

Before the meeting I was able to speak to Wokingham's lead councillor for Education, Matthew Deegan, who I had a useful conversation. Then I spent time putting residents' objections to Wokingham's Director of Childrens' Services Andy Cauldrick. They both assured me that they would answer the questions I put to them.

The meeting itself was a different matter all together. I have to say from an organisational point of view it was a shambles. There were about 400 people there and the council had not laid on any microphones for the speakers and those at the back couldn't hear properly. This did not help the assertive atmosphere, especially when it became clear that the proposal has been half baked and that hardly any children will benefit from the changes that Maiden Erlegh proposes.

When presented the plan itself is a shambles, the children who Wokingham are trying to help in the Southern part of Maiden Erlegh will be disadvantaged and our children will be completely excluded from Maiden Erlegh. It is clear that when the council began its consultation they did not include representatives from Reading and indeed not from Alfred Sutton School. This, I believe, is a breach of the Admissions Code and renders the proposal illegal.

The Officers, who were trying to present the plan, we confused and failed to convey why their plan was such a shambles. The elephant in the room is that the problem has been caused by the closure of Ryeish Green school and the Officers failed completely to admit that this was the reason for the perceived need to re write the school catchments even when this was obvious from the maps and documents that they were presenting.

In my view the meeting failed to answer questions and failed to provide any reassurance that our views will be listened to. This makes fighting the proposal very important for all the parents of Park Ward. It is obvious that if Wokingham cannot be trusted to support Reading parents over Maiden Erlegh, they absolutely can't be trusted over Reading childrens' future in their schools. Therefore we will have to fight and keep up the pressure on the Council.

Community Drop In

2010-09-25T09:47:00.001+01:00

Me talking to worried parents

Last night's meeting must count as one of the most successful community meetings that I have ever been to.

The parents' group of campaigners organised a community drop in meeting, where residents could ask questions or put their views about Wokingham's school catchment consultation.

The meeting opened at about 6pm and the last people came through the door at about 8.45. We packed up at around 9.15. I was talking solidly all that time. A surprise I am sure.....I guess that we had about 150-200 people walk through the door. Everyone I spoke to had a different concern, a differrent worry. The meeting had been so well organised that all of us who were giving advice were fantastically briefed and able to advise and give some assurance that we will campaign hard and forcibly.

The next community event is the community walk to the Consultation Meeting at Maiden Erlegh Wednesday 29th . Meet at 4.45 at the Fire Station Wokingham Road.

When the meeting came to an end we went for a well earned drink at the Roebuck. Aukland Road.

Us in the Roebuck after the meeting

Presenting the Petition at Wokingham

2010-09-23T22:57:00.003+01:00

Sophie McKenzie, former Maiden Erleigh pupil,
and I presenting the petition to the council

Presented the petition to Wokingham Borough Council this evening.

As of 5pm, the petition had 550 signatures, which probably represents more than 20% of all the households in South Park. A fantastic result.

In Wokingham, you make your speech, hand over the presentation and thats it, you do not get any feed back or counter presentations from Councillors or Officers, which is a little frustrating.

In my speech I pointed out that Wokingham are trying to split the community and that they are trying to exclude the children living closest to the school. At Wokingham you only have a minute to make your point, so I made my points quickly and asked the Council to soberly and clearly consider the objections and suggestions.

So on to the next item in the campaign, Parents' Drop in at the Park Hall, at the URC on the junction of the Wokingham Road and Palmer Park Ave, 6.30pm to 9.30pm. Please come, it will be great to hear your opinions and work with all the community to object to this proposal.

If you want to hear what I said, you should be able to hear it by clicking on this link Please excuse any mumbling, split infinitives or the small case of brain lock that occurs in the middle of the speech. You might have to save and play it rather than play direct from the web.

Latest Maiden Erlegh Update

2010-09-22T17:47:00.000+01:00

I have just sent the attached letter to the Maiden Erlegh Campaign database.

Richard McKenzie

63a Hamilton Road
Reading
RG1 5RA

07739 801929
http://www.richardmckenzie.org/

Dear Neighbour

As promised please find below an update on the Maiden Erlegh consultation

Dates for Your Diary

Presentation to Wokingham Borough Council of the Petition.

Wokingham does not have a Council meeting in October, so the Petition, which now contains over 530 signatures in the paper and online form, will be presented to the Council. If you are available please meet at Wokingham Borough Offices, Shute End, at about 7.10pm for a photograph. The petition will be handed over at 7.30pm.

Consultation Drop In Meeting: Park Church Hall Friday 24th September

Come and discuss your issues and ask questions about the consultation. There will be members of the Parents and Residents group who will be available to answer your questions and help you fill out the online consultation form. The drop in meeting will take place at the Park Church Hall at the Park URC church, which is at the junction of Palmer Park Ave. and the Wokingham Road. The meeting will take place between 6.30 and 9.30. This will be a great opportunity to express your concerns and meet other like minded parents.

Wokingham Consultation Meeting: Maiden Erlegh School Friday 29th September 5.30-7.30pm

This is our main opportunity to express our opinions to Wokingham Borough Council. We hope that as many parents as possible from the affected area of Park Ward will be able to attend. We would like as many people as possible to walk to the consultation together as a community walk. This will really show Wokingham that we are together and determined. If you would like to walk up to the consultation together, please meet outside the Wokingham Road Fire station at 4.45pm. This will give us enough time to gather together then walk together to the school.

Consultation Document

Wokingham has produced a shorter version of the consultation. This can be downloaded from their website at: http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/council/consultations/current-consultations/secondary-school-admissions-review-consultation/

Petition

The petition is still getting signatures, as I said above it now has over 530 signatures, but it would be great if when it is presented to Reading Borough Council in October it had more. If you know people who would still like to sign it, please forward this mail to them. The link is: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38683.html If you would like hard copy sheets for your neighbours to sign please email me and I will forward a sheet for you to print off.

Website

For updates and comments there has been a new website established: http://www.maidenerleghcatchment.co.uk/

Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you on soon.

Regards

Richard McKenzie

And Now For Something Completely Different

2010-09-21T10:23:00.000+01:00

I keep saying that campaigners need to take a break from the constant effort of campaigning. So on Thursday I took some of my own medicine and took an evening off to play some jazz at a dinner held to mark the start Wycliffe's Alpha Course.

We had a hot group, guitar, double bass, drums and me on my tenor sax. Should have sounded great, except that when we ook the stage I discovered that my sax had been knocked over and instead os a relaxing evening playing, I was faced iwtht he music starting and no instrument to play. Very nerve wracking.

I had to leg it in to a back room twiddle with the knobs to get my sax going and managed to get back on stage just as my solo was about to start. This was the first time I have every got a cheer before playing a note or speaking a word. While I was very rattled we got through the session and got quite an ovation at the end.

There were over 50 people at the dinner, not a huge audience, if you are used to playing in public, but a huge one when your instrument fails. All of them there, I guess, because they wanted to discuss what Christianity means and what it is, or isn't. I hope they enjoyed themselves and keep with the course.

If you are interested in Alpha, there is still space and if you click here you will end up at the Wycliffe website with contact details.

So break over back to work.......

Wokingham Need To Buy a Tape Measure

2010-09-17T10:42:00.000+01:00

Wokingham need to purchase themselves a new measuring device.

A good friend has plotted the distances of the roads in Park South from Bulmershe and Maiden Erlegh to understand Wokingham's claim that South Park's children would have a shorter walk to school if they went to Bulmershe.

By comparing distances, he has found that, apart from one small part of the ward, every road is closer to Maiden Erlegh than Bulmershe.

So what can we conclude? Is Wokingham being malicious? Is it confused? Or does it need a more powerful tape measure........?

Tories, true colours seen

2010-09-14T10:44:00.005+01:00

Now we know what Wokingham's Tories really think, with a rallying cry of Earley schools for Earley's children they bend the truth and try and exclude Reading's children. I especially like the part where they say that Park's children would have a shorter walk to Bulmershe, let me think, erm Melrose to Maiden Erlegh, 10 min walk, to Bulmershe, 30-40mins.....or Hamilton Road to Maiden Erlegh, 20 min walk to Bulmershe 40-50mins... Lies, damn lies and Tory leaflets... I publish the leaflet for your amusement

What I suggest Park residents and parents of children at Alfred Sutton, St Peter's and other local schools do is that they phone the numbers of the councillors and the email of their office to complain.

Earley's Tory Councillors, and especially Paul Swaddle, who I used to consider a friend, you should be ashamed of yourselves. If you want to email the document to friends or back to their office, Pauline@Earleyconservatives.com you can download the document here

Maiden Erlegh Catchment - The Plot Thickens

2010-09-13T22:47:00.000+01:00

Well, well, well Maiden Erlegh might be making the whole catchment issue more complicated by apparently applying for academy status. Above is an extract of the parents letter sent to all ME parents at the begining of this term. Dr Thomas, claims that the Governors are thinking about Academy status.

If granted the catchment area would remain the way it was if Academy status was granted, which could work on the side of the campaign. If they are just thinking about it, then the application would probably not affect what Wokingham is doing. If they have applied then this probably would affect things.

OK so far so good, however a quick search on the internet reveals that Maiden Erlegh appears to have already applied for Academy status and therefore may receive the status before the end of the process.

The details of the application can be found here to see the document click at this text:

A list of applications from mainstream schools to convert to academy status as of 31 August is available to download as a PDF document.

Its a bit complicated however you then need to use the search function to look for Maiden Erlegh.

So in conclusion what can we see:

a. The Head at Maiden Erlegh appears to be holding back on the truth about the application
b. The campaign needs to double its efforts to ensure that the catchment area doesn't change before Academy status is granted.

5 Reasons For Objecting to Wokingham's Proposals

2010-09-12T23:56:00.000+01:00

Just come back from a very very good meeting made up of Parents from the area and Councillors.

The discussion ranged around the following points.

1. Would RBC support parents in their fight with Wokingham Borough Council.

2. What are the best objections to use in any letters to Wokingham

3. The next campaigning steps

Will RBC support parents ?

I am pleased to say that Ward Councillors seem to be behind parents. The lead councillor for Education was there and he promised to look at the issue closely. We the parents were very strong in our view that Reading must make a strong statement of support.

How should parents object ?

The meeting developed 5 reasons for objecting to the proposal. These are:

1. Maiden Erlegh currently serves an area that is made up of many cultures, religions and nationalities. The Wokingham plan seeks to exclude this area and therefore will prevent the school from reflecting the make up of the area in the immediate vicinity of the school.

2. The Wokingham plan misunderstands the geographical area of Erleigh. It claims that only the Wokingham side of the Erleigh crossroads is Erleigh, while both sides of the cross roads are part of Erleigh and have RG6 postcodes.

3. The proposal suggests the opportunity to have a shared catchment for both Maiden Erlegh and Bulmershe in the Wokingham area but not in the Reading area. This goes against logic and natural justice.

4. Most importantly the plan seeks to remove the children who live closest to the school for the benefit of those that live furthest away. In removing the Reading children, the plan attempts to stop children going to a school that they can walk to one where more children will be driven to.

5. The proposals seek to remove parental choice.

These can be found here

Next Campaigning Steps

The group had come up with an innovative way of informing and discussing the issue with the local community. They have proposed holding a "drop in" meeting where residents can ask questions and get help in understanding the consultation, which has been written in legalise. This date is still to be decided, but will probably be the week after next at the Park Church Hall. Will confirm when I know.

The Petition

Support for the petition continues to grow, as of 17.00 this evening we have received over 450 signatures. This figure continues to grow. I was pleased to see that Erleigh St Peter's school have publicised it and I hope that Alfred Sutton will do so as well.

Other

What was most interesting was a leaflet that the Tories had produced in Wokingham. It makes many claims but fundimentally argues Erleigh's schools are for Erleigh's children. Now we know what their real agenda is and now we see how hard we, parents, politicians and the schools, will have to fight to defeat this.

Wokingham Publishes Its Consultation

2010-09-09T11:08:00.000+01:00

Just spent an interesting morning chatting to Rob White about the campaign to prevent Maiden Erlegh from changing the catchment area for Maiden Erlegh.

While we were talking I received an email which confirmed that Wokingham have finally published the consultation.

It can be found here

Please read it as soon as poss and comment to Wokingham by the 31st October.

Maiden Erlegh Update

2010-09-07T10:45:00.002+01:00

I have just sent this email to all those who responded to the Maiden Erlegh petition. Incase I have missed your email. I publish it here for your information

Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area Update 1
Dear Neighbour
The campaign to force Wokingham Borough Council not to change the catchment area of Maiden Erlegh school is starting to gain momentum.

Over the weekend about 90% of all the houses in the area have been leafleted, with the balance being completed by Wednesday.Over the weekend I worked with Labour colleagues to knock on approximately 60% of all the doors in the area to ask residents to sign the petition. You will be pleased to hear that the majority of the people we spoke to wanted to sign the petition.
In an interview on BBC Berkshire a Wokingham Officer commented that the proposal was not a "done deal" so it is very important that we bring as much pressure to bear as possible. I am pleased that the local councillors have joined us in the fight and I look forward to them bringing Reading Borough Council on board.

What is Planned

I have been talking to officers in Wokingham and Reading. Wokingham’s plan seems to be as follows:

1. Reading children to be excluded from Maiden Erlegh from Sept.2012

2. There will be protection for siblings allowing them to follow their brother or sister to Maiden Erlegh

3. The exclusion will affect all children, including those that attend Earley St Peters

4. They propose Bulmershe as the Secondary School for all East Reading children

5. Their consultation will take place in Sept-Nov and the final decision being made in April 2011

Consultation
This should be available on the Wokingham website from Tuesday or Wednesday. It will be found at http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/council/consultations/current-consultations/ please read it as soon as possible.

Consultation Meetings

It appears that Wokingham are planning to have 2 consultation meetings ; one on the 29th Sept and another on the 6th Oct. The location has yet to be agreed.

Writing Letters

We need as many people as possible to write to Wokingham Borough Council with their objections. Letters should be written to:Schools Admissions Consultation, Wokingham Education Dept. Education & Cultural Services, Wokingham District Council, PO Box 156, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1WN Tel: 0118 974 6000 Fax: 0118 974 6103

I would be grateful if you could copy me on your letter so that we can judge the level of letter writing.

Petition
Please forward this mail to your neighbours so that they can sign the petition if they haven’t been able to do this yet.

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38683.html

Volunteers

Thank you to all those who have volunteered so far if you would like to help and deliver leaflets etc, please come back to me.

Thank You

Thank you for your support so far, we will only win if as many people as possible make their feelings known and please feel free to forward this mail on to your neighbours and friends.

Best Regards

Richard McKenzie

Maiden Erlegh Petition - The Star Campaigner

2010-09-04T18:03:00.000+01:00

The Maiden Erlegh campaign is starting to get in to its stride now, I, with 2 other Park Ward residents, was interviewed on BBC Berkshire and 107FM also interviewed me this week.

We are getting round the area with a leaflet which explains the situation and asks residents to sign the petition against the change of catchment boundaries. If you haven't had a moment to sign yet the link is here.

Many Labour Party members have been out knocking on residents' doors asking the neighbourhood to get behind this campaign and I am pleased to say we are getting very very good support.

The star campaigner is my daughter, Isabelle, who on Friday leafleted a huge area, in fact if you have had a leaflet it is probably her who delivered it. She did about 10 roads without complaining. She did so well that I took her to the pictures as a reward.

Andrew Peach and I discussed the issue on his show on Friday on BBC Berkshire and you can listen to his show here I am on at about 3.32, if you listen all the way through you will also hear the views of 2 residents and a spokesman from Wokingham. She is on at 1.07.

The Wokingham Spokeswoman, gives me the impression that the Borough has made up their mind, however, significantly she does say that the decision is not set in stone and we as residents and parents of children living in the APS area need to get together to make her change her mind.

So the campaign continues, the consultation is going to be issued on Monday and we all need to read it, understand the full implications of what is being considered and ight hard to make Wokingham change its mind.

Hands Off The Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area

2010-09-01T16:44:00.000+01:00

Wokingham Borough Council has really gone and done it now, it has decided to change the catchment area for Maiden Erlegh School to exclude children attending Alfred Sutton Primary School from September 2012.

Under this proposal all children who are currently in Year 5 and below would be excluded and have to attend another secondary school, despite the fact that Maiden Erlegh has been the traditional secondary school attended by Alfred Sutton Primary School for more than 20 years.

Wokingham have decided to open a consultation on the 6th September and hold a public meeting at the end of September or the beginning of October. They will put their full proposals up on their website http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/ on the 6th. It is vital that parents, grandparents and residents living in Park make their voice heard. Wokingham has made a number of attempts over the last 10 years to exclude Alfred Sutton Parents from Maiden Erlegh and a concerted campaign has always made them back down.

What can you do.

1. Sign our petition. We have put up an e-petition on line which you can access by clicking here

2. Write to the Wokingham Education Dept. Education & Cultural Services, Wokingham District Council, PO Box 156, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1WN Tel: 0118 974 6000 Fax: 0118 974 6103. Write expressing your concern and demanding that Alfred Sutton School children remain within the catchment area.

I have contacted Wokingham already to ask them to reconsider and will be writing to them shortly. We have got good coverage to the story and I hope that we can get a good head of steam in the campaign and get them to change their minds.

Please support us and support Park's children by signing our petition and writing to Wokingham. When we have more information I will post it here.

Saw this on Youtube and had to share it.

2010-08-24T19:43:00.006+01:00

Emily How did you do in your GCSE's

2010-08-24T19:42:00.000+01:00

Well the GSCE results are in and another year of improvement. I imagine that the fact that there has been constant improvement for the last 23 years has not been much of a comfort for the teenagers, and their parents who were waiting biting their nails last year.

I did mine in 1982 and I remember the tension, unbearable, especially as I had just moved to Germany and had to wait another week to get mine as someone had to post them to me. The day they arrived in our letter box, it was a very hot day and I was so excited I rang one of my old teachers to talk about them.

So congratulations to all of you that did your GCSE's I hope that you got the results you were looking for and will get the help you need if they weren't as good as you hoped.

Dear Emily, please shop locally

2010-08-21T14:04:00.000+01:00

I have been shopping, ok perhaps not so so exciting, but it struck me that the shops on the Wokingham Road have got so good over the last few years. When I first lived in Norris Road in the mid 90's the shops were a bit grim.

We have a couple of butchers, one shown here, a couple of food shops including the one run by our old neighbours, Bali and her husband Buckshee, Rahim Stores. This is also one of the two shops you can by alcohol. We have a laudrette, ice cream shops and even if you like vintage shops a couple of charity shops.

There are a couple of great take aways, and the fantastic Erleigh Cafe, where the coffee's good and fry ups are legendary. You can even buy tools on the parade of shops. It is an amazing shoping area. I could go on and on, a real local shopping area.

So we are being constantly asked to reduce carbon emmissions and all of us that live in Park could do this by using our local shops, we have the fantastic COOP on the junction and a myriad of small corner shops in Newtown. If you live in Newtown its an easy walk to Tescos. If organic food is your thing then we even have the "True Food Coop" which comes to the Warehouse once a week or so.

There are some issues around the shops, especially with Parking, and I know that the local Neighbourhood Action Group, NAG has a number of issues which they are trying to raise with the shopkeepers. However
if we as residents don't use the shops, esp those selling food and groceries, the problems around parking and rubbish will dissappear as the businesses will go out of business.

So Emily, when you have finished reading this, nip out to the shops and get the ingredients for tea and have a great weekend.

Congratulations to All A Level Students

2010-08-19T23:36:00.000+01:00

Today was a big day in the McKenzie household, my eldest was expecting her exam results. She has done her AS's and like every 17 and 18 year old who had done exams last summer today was a tadge stressful. To see what the national picture for A Levels is click here.

I haven't seen much moaning about A Levels getting easier. I took my first lot of A Levels in 1985 and I have to admit I found them very very hard. I also took another in 1995 and that was even harder. I took and A Level in French and the whole exam was in French. I took a degree in German and Russian and only had to write a couple of papers in those languages. An A Level totally in French felt much harder than my degree. If you don't believe me I suggest trying to write a 300 word essay on the songs of George Brassens.

To help you in your efforts and Essay writing here is a Youtube clip of a Brassens song. There is a prize if you can email and tell me what the song is about. Email it to the address on the right

It is great to see that A level results have risen for the 27th Year in a row, 13 of those under a Labour government who invested in the Education system throughout. The young people collecting their A Levels today started school in 1996 and apart from their first year have enjoyed the benefits of this investment. With the Condems already having cut the Buliding For Schools programme and threatening to cut budgets how long will this improvement continue? I know as a Governor that we are seeing those that support us cut back and it will be interesting to see whether our local Condem admistration will cut to the same depth that their political chums in Whitehall do.

As a governor and local activist I will fight any reduction in support that the Condems give to Alfred Sutton and Newtown schools.

As for my daughter well, that's between her, her parents and the school. But I am proud of what she is acheived and love her very much.

So congratulations to all of this year's A Level and AS Level students I hope that you got the results you were looking for, however if the results weren't quite what you wanted, the situation will work itself out and there will be lots of people to help you move forward.

Pakistani Earthquake

2010-08-17T23:16:00.000+01:00

Met with the Pakistani Community this evening to help raise money for relief of the Pakistani flood disaster.

With Cholera breaking out, the flood waters continuing to rise and thousands of people being displaced this was one of the most important meetings I have been to for a long time. I have been really moved by what has happened in Pakistan and have been keen to make sure that Reading is able to support the relief efforts.

That being said it was very enjoyable, but with a serious purpose, to spend time with the community, break the fast and share a meal with them. All this as part of the community's attempts to raise money. I was talking to the guys who were collecting money and they were telling me how generous people on the streets were being.

I was particularly pleased to see a mix of locals, and friends there. I was particularly pleased to see some friends from Wycliffe Baptist church there. It was also gratifying to see some of our Labour councillors there. Unfortunately the Park Councillors from the other Parties seemed to be absent, which was a shame.

If you want to donate some money to the relief efforts click the link to the Disasters Emergency Committee here

Reading Youth Theatre - Recognised By RBC

2010-08-16T22:09:00.000+01:00

So no blog for a couple of weeks. I am writing a dissertation at the moment. 20,000 lovely words about East German film. Its going well so have some time to blog again.

Been to see Sophie, my eldest daughter, perform in the Reading Youth Theatre's Edinburgh Fringe production which they showcased at the Council.

The play is about the troubles that young refugees have in trying to get to the UK. It is truely moving, the group workshopped the play with refugees in Reading so that they can get a true feel of what being a young refugee is really like. The Reading Youth Theatre is supported by the Council and there were pleas from the group for the funding to continue so that their good work can continue. I can only support this, I have an interest, both my daughters are now in the theatre group and I think all young people should have the opportunity to stretch themselves.

Well done the Reading Youth Theatre and well done the production team. Reading Borough Council, please continue to support the group.

All the Kings Men

2010-08-08T12:24:00.000+01:00

If you are going to Edinburgh for the Festival you MUST check out Reading Youth Theatre's production....I am biased as my eldest daughter is performing there.

http://www.festivalpreviews.com/component/content/article/37-virtual-flyers/1961-all-the-queens-children

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Mela, Hot, Hot, Hot

2010-07-18T19:31:00.000+01:00

Had a fantastic weekend. Spent yesterday talking to residents on the door and spent today at the Mela.

We had a very subtle stand, as you can see and it was nice to be able to talk politics with East Reading's asian community. Although it was very very hot. I had to ask my daughter to bring over my hat as I was getting sun burnt.

This picture shows Jon and I with a College Road resident. This was obviously before the sun burn kicked in.

Saw some of Park's other Councillors, it was interesting to see that Park's Tory popped in especially as we have not seen much of him over the last 3 years.

One of the great things about an open air event is that everybody wants to talk about what really bothers them. Sometimes this can be tricky political questions and sometimes this can be where's the nearest loo. Happily we were able to help in both cases.

So I am checking out the lists of issues we have been given to follow up and am going to have to do something about my face, which is in need of somekind of cooling liquid. Will report on the issues and follow ups soon.

The Reading ConDems, can you trust them?

2010-07-07T07:36:00.000+01:00

Have just seen this from my friend Councillor John Ennis. John is highlighting the double dealing nature of the current ConDem administration in Reading.

I copy it here for you.

Headline: All Saints School, Alok Sharma and Councillor Ralph need to answer questions

Before the General Election, Alok Sharma, MP Reading West and Councillor Mark Ralph visited All Saints School and committed to supporting the parents, teachers and governors in expanding the school. They lobbied our administration for the expansion. We had already agreed to hold off putting August House in order to investigate further expansion of All Saints. However, less than six weeks later the ConDem coalition is going to sell August House against the commitments of Cllr Mark Ralph in an outrageous bout of hypocrisy. ALok is saying nothing as he has already achieved his aims of getting elected as MP for Reading West, therefore he doesn't need the parents and children of All Saints anymore. Maybe he will comment in four years time, closer to his re-election.

Below is a press release from the Reading and District Labour Party outlining the hypocritical comments made on Mr Sharma's website and the platitudes of Councillor Mark Ralph.

READING & DISTRICT LABOUR PARTY MEDIA RELEASE

Labour: “Tory hypocrisy will break All Saints hearts”

Tory Lead Councillor for Education Mark Ralph plans to ignore the pleas from Governors and parents at All Saints Infants School by pushing ahead with the sale of August House at Cabinet on 12 July. All Saints and their local community are only asking for six months to see if they can find funds for their one and only opportunity to expand the school to a full Primary and end local families’ junior school placement misery. Cllr Ralph and his ConDem colleagues on Reading Borough Council seem to be simply turning a blind eye to their plight.

But, says Labour’s education lead, Cllr. Jon Hartley, Mark Ralph and his Tory colleagues, are also ignoring the promises that they made before the election; when Alok Sharma MP pledged his support for parent's plans for All Saints.

Jon says: “The Tories were clear in their support for All Saints School before the elections. Now, despite proclaiming that they are working in a ‘new politics’ they are already engaged in the worst kind of political bad faith, promising one thing to local people and then doing the opposite.”

Amazingly, the clear evidence of the Tories’ hypocrisy is still available on the Conservative’s own campaigning website, www.aloksharma.co.uk

On 15 February, Alok Sharma, who as a Parliamentary Candidate claimed to be working with the school’s parents and governors, said: “I fully support this excellent initiative from the parents and governors at All Saints. They are all extremely motivated to expand the school and I very much hope that Reading Borough Council will listen to their proposals with an open mind. The pressure on school places in Reading Borough is not going to go away and creating another 60 places at All Saints will undoubtedly help. The Council needs to demonstrate some imagination and long-term thinking when they review the plan from All Saints. The success of any school is determined by its leadership team, the motivation of the governing body and the positive involvement of parents and in the case of All Saints, everyone is fully behind this initiative.”

And Cllr. Mark Ralph himself, then Tory education spokesman, added: “The plan to expand the school has clear merits and I will be pressing the council to give the parents and governors a fair hearing when they are ready to present their proposals.”

A month later, on 16 March, Alok Sharma again publicly supported the school’s expansion plans, saying: “Parents are understandably frustrated and concerned that many of their children have not be allocated places at any of their preferred schools. If All Saints receives support from Reading Borough Council and is allowed to expand, not only will overall pressure on school places be eased but parents at All Saints will not face the same uncertainty about school places in future years. This is a win-win situation, it just needs the Council to think and act with some imagination and support a really motivated set of parents and governors.”

Jon Hartley comments:

“Just a few months ago, Alok Sharma and Mark Ralph were happy to say they supported All Saints School and even called on the Labour administration to do more. Now the Reading West MP is silent whilst Cllr Ralph seems prepared to push through a complete U-turn, ending all hope of expanding a popular local school.

The challenge to them and their Tory colleagues is to do the right thing and live up to the promises that they made in the run up to the elections. Just do what Labour was doing, give All Saints parents the support, imagination and most importantly the fair-hearing that is still promised on their own MP’s website. If they persist in their current plans, the Tories’ hypocrisy will break the hearts of parents at All Saints and families across Reading will know that they cannot trust this new council coalition’s promises.”

East Reading Festival and Sun Burn

2010-07-04T16:53:00.000+01:00

I wish I had a hat....just spent a very very warm afternoon, campaigning on behalf of public sector workers at the East Reading festival..very enjoyable.

We were also asking residents to sign a petition on HMO's it was great to talk to residents about their concerns and work with all the Labour volunteers to make sure we spoke to as many people as possible.

The picture show me with Labour activists at the festival.

We have a big programme of campaigns ahead so you will see us out and about. Come and say hello, we might even give you a badge.

We also met up with the organisers of the Freegle group and promised to put a link to their site so here it is.

Writing a Consitution

2010-07-02T10:18:00.000+01:00

I now have an incling of how the Founding Father's of the US felt....Ok a little exagerated perhaps but stick with me.

I with a number of other Parent Governors at Alfred Sutton have been asked to establish a Parents' Forum to assist the Governoring body. It will be a consultee of the Governors and also be a place where Parents can discuss with the Governors issues that concern them.

I am very keen that parents are able to find a voice in the school and am working hard with a number of parents and governors to develop this.

We have already held our first meeting where parents were able to talk about the issues that worried them and also to decide whether they wanted to have a Forum in the first place. We were able to take those issues to the school and I am pleased to say got some very positive answers back. The parents also decided that the Forum was a good idea and that we should go ahead and organise it.

Yesterday we took our first step in formalising the group by writing a Consititution, or perhaps more realistically a charter for the group. Although it only runs to a page and a bit it was good to see everyone working together to make the Forum work and understand the commitment needed to run it.

I hope we will be able to present the Charter at our next meeting, which is Tuesday 6th at 19.30. If you are a parent of a child at Alfred Sutton, come along we will be giving feedback on the issues raised at the last meeting.

For those of you with an interest in such things here is a link to the US constitution there are some intor notes but the constitution starts on page 21 of the document. For really constitution spotters here is a link to the German Grundgestezt, which is the current German constitution. For reall constitution spotters there is a prize for those that can tell me why the German's have a Basic Law rather than a constitution.

Lollipops are lovely

2010-06-21T22:14:00.000+01:00

Have had my first day back lollipoping, really enjoyed it. I have actually missed the interaction with parents and their children in the morning.

5 weeks has been a long time not to do something you enjoy and especially as in the last few weeks my foot felt ok as long as I didn't stress it too much.

I was taken aback at how many people were kind enough to say they were pleased that I was back looking after the crossing and the sun even shined.

I also understand that another Parent has offered to do some of the afternoon slot as 4 out of 5 slots haven't been covered, so even more good news. He is meeting me on Wednesday for some training so he can see what the mornings are like. I hope he enjoys it.

So all in all a good day,

Shooting at Grange Ave.

2010-06-07T09:31:00.000+01:00

I am sad to say that the spectre of gun crime has again come to Park Ward.

At about 11.30 last night( Sunday) an arguement took place outside of the on of the Take Aways and a shot was fired. As far as I could find out there were no fatalities.

I was working outside Alfred Sutton this morning, and came across this scene. Fortunately as I was on the spot I was able to reassure passers by about the general safety of the area and that this appears to have been a one off incident. Nevertheless it is very concerning and I will be writing to the Council and also to the Police to ask them to step up police and PCSO patrols in the area. As a member of the local Police/Residents' liaison committee I know that the Police are working hard in the area, but as a father of 2 teenage children I want to make sure that they are doing everything in their power to make sure that the area is safe.

I will be working, with my Labour colleagues, to make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Doesn't recommend the Tube on Crutches

2010-05-29T17:42:00.000+01:00

My odyessy on crutches continues, while I learn to understand the issues which people who have mobility difficulties have when out and about.

The day starts off, with me having to "walk" on crutches to Great Knolly's Street from Jackson's corner, I don't know about 3/4 of a mile, because I left something on a bus and had to pick it up. Usefully Reading Buses doesn't have a bus stop near the depot. Then I had to walk, stomp, back to the station. I had to get from Paddington to the Imperial War Museum. So for those that don't know the Tube trip is simple stay on the Bakerloo from Padders to Lambeth North.

Get to Paddington, stomp to the Tube, ah, only way down is steps of escalator, it is easier to use the Bakerloo exit near platform 9 and 10 but this has steps. Stomp to the gate and go down the escalator. With crutches I take up a bit of space on the escalator and a kind chap waits behind me as he can't get by me. This poor chap is sworn at by a woman aged about 20 as she tells him to get out of the F+++ing way. All this because he was giving me space. The Tube was fine except, despite being on crutches no one wants to let you sit donw so stood for 20mins.

Get to Lambeth North easy, except you have to get up somesteps to get to the lift, only one working. Then another 1/4 mile stomp to the Museum. Oh at the Museum, which I love, the lifts don't work and there are a million steps.

So feeling a tadge worn out and have to reverse the whole thing to get home. Almost exactly the same, except there are no seats on the train. While I am wondering whether I can cope on crutches for 30 mins a lovely lady gives up her seat. Thank you so much.

Get to Reading so have to get a bus home, a simple yomp from the Station to Jacksons Corner, another 1/4 mile. Then the bus home and another 1/4mile yomp up Hamilton Rd. Was done in when I got home.

So my judgement, the Tube is utterly useless if you have any mobility difficulty, if you aren't being abused by pushy Londoners, none will give you a seat and there are about a million steps. Reading Buses are ok, except the bus stops are not quite where you want them, especially in the centre of town.

BUT Reading Borough Council, STILL hasn't replaced the bus shelter by Alfred Sutton and my arms hurt allot. So if you have mobility problems, don't go on the Tube, get a Taxi.