Somewhere to write, discuss, reflect, ponder, muse and mull over life, stuff, things and anything that takes my fancy.
A shock decision tonight (Wednesday 8th Feb.) as Wokingham Council Planning Committee grants outline planning permission to Reading University for their Sibly Hall development plans.
This decision, granted despite much local opposition before and at the meeting and Earley Town Councils rejection of the plan will impact many people in and around Sibly Hall.
I’ll post some more information about the meeting and what this will mean and what any next steps might able to be taken.
The Wokingham Council Planning committee meeting date approaches – 7pm on 8th February at Wokingham Council Offices.
If you have not seen them, here are links to a) the Agenda for the forthcoming Planning Meeting – the Sibly Hall Development being the first item on the Agenda and b) a report prepared by Wokingham Council’s Head of Development Management.
These two documents should have been on the web as described by the recent letter sent by Wokingham Council, unfortunately the link was incorrect but I managed to get the right link by ringing them for further info.
I also received today a set of documents from the Sibley Hall Action Group email list which they obtained under a Freedom of Information request which contains quite a bit of additional background information. This is also well worth reading as it contains emails & minutes of meetings discussing the Appeal by Reading University and various conversations between Solicitors, Wokingham Council and other interested parties.
These pages have already been included in one of the 40+ objection letters already lodged with Wokingham Council about this planned disastrous development.
Let’s hope that Wokingham Planning Committee sees sense and turns down this application and saves us all from the immense ramifications that this development will be foisted on the local community.
See you at the meeting.
OFCOM have just published their latest report about the state of the UK Broadband Speed. Makes for interesting reading. Still seems that there areas for improvement in delivery and the overall speed achievable in the UK. Full report can be found here.
I received a letter from Wokingham Council last week about the Sibly Hall Development that is causing so much concern for local residents. It would seem from the letter that the planning application may be approved.
I really do think that this would be a disaster for local residents not only with the loss of one of the last remaining open green spaces in Earley, but also from the amount of pressure it will put on local resources and a serious increase in local traffic on what are already overcrowded local roads.
I understand that Reading University needs to move ahead, but building 80 plus houses and swallowing up this green open space is not welcomed by any local residents.
The Governments Localism Act was, amongst other elements supposed to deliver more say to local communities about what happens in their own ‘backyard’. From what I have seen during this drawn out planning application phase is a complete disregard for local concerns by Reading University.
At least Earley Town Council has turned down the application. However, they don’t have the final say as Wokingham Council planning committee will meet on the 8th February and as can be seen by the letter the application is recommended for approval.
Let’s hope that some common sense prevails at that meeting and if as well attended as the Earley Town Council meeting – some 40+ people – Wokingham Planning Committee will understand the level of opposition to this planned housing development.
Information can be found on the letter if you want to attend the meeting and if you want to lobby the members of the Planning Committee prior to the meeting, their names and email addresses can be found here.
See you at the meeting.
My BT Infinity broadband connection has really stabilised over the first month of 2012.
BT have sent a letter out all users that they are replacing the Modems in the configuration. Let’s hope that nothing happens to the speed after the changeover, except perhaps for even more speed!
A bit behind again, but here are my BT Infinity broadband performance figures for Oct., Nov., and Dec. Seems that there were a few glitches along the way, but all seems to have settled down again. Today the figure is 29MB download and 8.5 MB upload.
Technorati Tags: BT-ISP,Infinity,Broadband Speed,Internet
I wrote about this back in June 2011 and since then Wokingham Council have updated their information about the changes which will come in to effect on the 1st April 2012.
Here are the main changes which of course means that we will get less for the same amount of money we pay through Council Tax.
Here are some FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) that hopefully will cover all of the other points that may arise.
Looks like the UK Morris Dancing community is not one to cross. It seems that they will not be part of next years Olympics Opening Ceremonies.
According to the Daily Mail we could well see ‘Flash-Mobs’ of Morris dancers invading many of the Olympic venues. I wonder how security will cope with that. Are we all going to be asked to declare what were wearing under our outer clothes?
I am still waiting to be told that we can’t take our own Camera’s or Mobiles into the venues due to the license rights being ‘sold’ to yet another over wealthy sponsor!!
I’ve liked one or two of the films that Danny Boyle has made, so as the ‘Artistic Director’ of the opening and closing show and with an extra £40 million he’s now been given on top of the original £40 million, it had better be one hell of an event. No Train Spotting I hope!
I came across an interesting article in last Saturdays Telegraph, apparently approx. 90,000 people a year have taken their UK driving test in a foreign language!
Amazing to think that all those that passed, could be driving on our roads unable to read any of the UK English Language signs!! I find that truly amazing and it may account for the drop in the standards of driving over recent years.
It seems that I forgot to post some of my recent ISP broadband performance figures.
Probably because it seems to have really settled down to a constant figure and the fact that I was away for some holidays.
Figures are for BT Infinity, top of left hand scale is 35 MB’s.
So here are the figures for July, August & September.
Beasley's Place 