Published: Thursday, 3rd July, 2008 10:00
Leader: Councils need to get together to sort our roads
By Reading Chronicle, The Voice of Reading
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AFTER six months, 540 submissions, 10 public hearings and countless worthy words, Reading’s Independent Transport Commission has published its report.
The ink was barely dry when critics leapt on it as a waste of time and money, lacking any original ideas.
It’s not hard to be sympathetic to the argument that while the commission has done an extremely good job of identifying the problems, we already knew what they were. So what of the solutions? The boldest measures proposed by the commission are of course the most difficult for politicians in Reading and neighbouring authorities to sell to the public, and Sir Brian recognises this.
In proposing road pricing, a third Thames crossing and bridge tolls, what he and his fellow commissioners are attempting to do is present councils with a stark choice - work together and try to implement measures to ease congestion in Reading, or risk stymying the growth that has seen Greater Reading develop into such a powerhouse, with, it must be said, urban Reading at its core.
Sir Brian has made it clear that Reading’s economic growth in recent years is a phenomenon. The town is a regional economic “diamond”.
But this growth simply cannot be expected to continue without the transport infastructure to sustain it.
The commissioners certainly do not under-estimate how politicised transport in Reading has become.
From Reading Borough Council’s procrastination over the one-way IDR to South Oxfordshire’s intransigence over a third Thames crossing, they are aware that the difficult part is yet to come with many entrenched differences to be thrashed out. But the challenge he and professor Tony Travers and Dr Maggie Smales have laid down is one of overcoming such parochialism.
Given the frustrations of so many commuters travelling to and from the town, it comes as a welcome surprise to hear Rob Wilson MP suggest Reading and Wokingham councils get together over the third Thames bridge and 'get it done, put in a planning application, have the public inquiry and get it kicked up to the Secretary of State’. Anyone trying to negotiate Reading town centre on a weekday morning could surely only marvel at something that moves so quickly.
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