If you tolerate this- Your Campaign Will be Next

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:

Harvest Festival on Cemetery Junction

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

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?

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