Greens call for council to protect Kennet Mouth
The Green Party is asking Reading council to list the part of the Kennet Mouth area which is within Reading as a site to protect in the new Site Allocations Document. This will protect the area from the blight of a new Cross Town Route.
The new Cross Town Route is a scheme involving a road running east-west from the Thames Valley Business Park into the town centre and a large park-and-ride car park. The Tories see it as a road for cars and Labour and the Lib Dems want it to be only for buses. The original Cross Town Route was defeated in the 1990s.
The area which would be ruined by a new Cross Town Route is important for the local community who use it well, in addition to providing habitat for a variety of wildlife and being an active floodplain. The scheme would also attract more cars into the Reading area by offering more car parking. The Green Party opposes this scheme.
The Site Allocations Document is a council plan which will allocate land for development and protection over a 15 year period. The document can be viewed on the council's website or seen in public buildings around Reading.
This recent action from the Green Party follow years of campaigning to protect the Kennet Mouth area and surrounding green space from the development plans of the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems who are all in favour of a road and car park in the area of Kennet Mouth. In recent years this campaigning consisted of a 500 signature petition against the Cross Town Route and a well attended public meeting on the issue.
Green campaigner Rob White who came within 20 votes of becoming Reading's first Green councillor in Park Ward this year said:
"Recently the Labour group have been saying that they want to protect the Kennet Mouth area. If they area serious about this then I'm sure they will have no problem in listing it in the Site Allocations Document for protection."
"If on the other hand they continue to support the Cross Town Route style scheme which is still in their local transport plan then they may have a problem with listing it..."
"The Green Party is the only party who is listening to residents views and opposing this scheme."
ENDS
Notes for the Editor
1. For more information please contact Rob White on 07985 923938 or 0118 950 4062.
2. Green Park Ward candidate Rob White polled 994, and came within 20 votes of becoming Reading's first Green councillor at the last local elections in Reading.
Kennetmouth.
Kennetmouth is very much a forgotten corner of Reading, long used and enjoyed by residents of Newtown but largely unknown otherwise. It stands at the upstream end of the Dreadnought Reach of the Thames which, looking downstream, is as good an example of Middle Thames scenery as can be found anywhere and is stunningly beautiful on a sunny spring or summer day. Many towns would be envious of such a resource so close to the centre and yet Reading chooses to ignore it. To put the Cross Town Route in place, or for that matter a third Reading Bridge, would be a crime and would ruin this resource for those that use it regularly. It is a pity that the Thames Valley Park access road was put so close to the river rather than being separated from it by buildings and we must work to ensure that the area is not further degraded. However Kennetmouth does itself no favours being blighted by litter, grafitti and dumped shopping trolleys and with evidence of drug paraphernalia strewn around. If we are to protect the area for the future we must integrate it into Readings natural resources by making it part of a "river walk" or promoting it as a cycle route. A good place to start would be to improve the landscaping by planting trees in the gap between the railway and the river between Kennetmouth and the old Dreadnought pub (easily justifiable on ecological grounds), removing the litter and grafitti on a regular basis and increasing police patrols to eradicate the drug presence and improve the current seedy image of the place. Much as I would like to see the area left as a forgotten corner, unless we promote it as a place of value the council will continue to treat it as an area of no importance.
John B.
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