Letter: Transports of delight - get on board, West Berks

Correspondent • Published 4 Feb 2010 11:00 0 Comments

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I was interested to read (Chronicle, January 28) that Wokingham Council, albeit Conservative-controlled, is set to back Reading's TiF bid, Cllr Keith Baker saying: "It offers the best opportunity to fund significant levels of new transport infrastructure and services throughout the area, to offer real alternatives to driving and gives the Wokingham borough an excellent opportunity to secure some much-needed funds for transport improvements".

Exactly the same would be true in West Berkshire, also Conservative-controlled, but here Cllr Baker's opposite number, Alan Law, has refused to take any part in the TiF, sacrificing millions of pounds which could have flowed into this area to help tackle its very real transport problems.

People who have been reading Cllr Law's many flailing attacks on Naz Sarkar recently will probably conclude, and I think rightly, that he's putting his evident loathing for the Labour Party, and hence for Reading Council, ahead of the interests of residents in West Berkshire whom he is supposed to represent.

West Berkshire will always have Reading as a neighbour and it will always make sense for the two authorities, regardless of political control, to work together to tackle traffic that crosses administrative boundaries. Cllr Law is just cutting off the public's nose to spite his own political face.

Glenn Dennis, Seton Drive, Calcot

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