Winnersh

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Winnersh Parish Council   Winnersh Community Centre, New Road, Wokingham RG41 5DU   0118 978 0244

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See www.getwokingham.co.uk for local news for the Wokingham area provided by the Wokingham Times.

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For more local news items see:
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Page last updated: Nov 2011

Winnersh Meadows Improvements Get Go Ahead  May 2011

The Ground Force Lottery has awarded £50,000 to improve Winnersh Meadows, the area between Arbor Lane and the M4 motorway shown on the map to the left. Work will commence later this year and will take about a year to complete.

The improvements will include additional tree planting, a wild flower meadow, a new pond, an outdoor ‘trim trail’ (exercise circuit), new picnic tables, benches and bins, along with football goalposts and netball facilities. It will also provide better access for prams, buggies, cycles and wheelchairs with a new 600 metre path.

A public consultation took place in January 2008 and established what residents would like to see improved in the 10 hectares of green public open space owned by Wokingham Borough Council.

The application for the funding was made by the Winnersh Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG), chaired by Pat Rowell. Over the past three years Pat has worked with NAG member Roberta Tweedy, officers of Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) and the facilitator for Ground Force Lottery to achieve this result.

Pat said: “It has been a long time coming and a lot of hard work has gone into securing this grant. I am sure that it will be well worth waiting for. With all of the development that Winnersh has undergone in the last few years, this under-utilised green public open space is a little gem! It will be given a face-lift so that Winnersh residents of all ages can enjoy it to the full.”

Along with a donation of £9,000 from Winnersh Parish Council and a further £38,000 from WBC (“section 106” development money), funding for the project totals nearly £100,000. See www.seeds.org.uk/winnersh.nag for more information.

New Parish Council Starts Work                                May 2011

The new parish council had its first meeting on 10 May following its ‘election’ on 5 May. All parish councils come up for election every four years and 2011 was an election year. However there were not enough people nominated to fill the 15 places on the council so those nominated were ‘elected’ unopposed. The council therefore decided to co-opt three members at its first meeting to expand its number and also elected its ‘officers’ for the coming year. The new line-up of councillors is:

David Green (Chairman), John Southgate (Vice-Chairman & Finance Committee Chairman), John Grimson (Planning Committee Chairman), Jill Plant (Recreation & Amenities Committee Chairman), Prue Bray, Frank Breedlove, Ted Cooke, David Hunt, Lisa Lainsbury, James Leask, Imogen Shepherd-Dubey, Rachelle Shepherd-Dubey and Liz Siggery.

Cllr Green said “I hope to build on the successes of the previous council. The development of the Bearwood Recreation Ground site and the Winnersh Community Centre over recent years, along with recent initiatives regarding the fete, Christmas Lights, litter picks and allotments, have all helped to enhance the community spirit.” He said that he hoped that the Council will be able to build on this foundation and observed that the Localism Bill may give opportunities to engage people locally.

Hatch Farm Dairies - Public Meeting                     February 2011

A planning application to build 433 homes to the south west of Winnersh has been resubmitted by developers Persimmon and Bovis. The development would include a relief road to the south of Winnersh and a two-form entry primary school.

Come and learn more about the proposed development and give us your views. Winnersh Parish Council in conjunction with WRAP (Winnersh Residents for Action on Planning) have organised a public meeting to be held on Friday 11th March at 7:45 pm at the Winnersh Community Centre, Mole Road, Sindlesham. Representatives from the developer and WBC (Wokingham Borough Council, the planning authority) will be present including experts on flooding and traffic matters and the senior WBC Councillors responsible for planning and highways (Cllr Angus Ross and Cllr Keith Baker).  

Sad Loss of Popular Councillor                                May 2010

Family, friends and colleagues gathered on Friday 7th May to commemorate the sad loss of Cllr Judith Wilkins. She died on Saturday 24th April at the age of 56.

Judith had lived in Winnersh since 1986, had been a Parish Councillor for 19 years and Chairman of the Council for four years. She was also well known locally as a former Chairman of Governors of Bearwood Primary School.

The funeral service was held at Easthampstead Park Crematorium and her eulogy spoke of the many people who had reacted to the news by saying that she was “a very special lady”. Always caring about other people both inside and outside work, Judith was known for being scrupulously fair, determined, pragmatic and very well organised. Judith was a vibrant personality who will be sorely missed by many people in our community.

A new cafe opened at the Bearwood recreation Ground on 1st May. The cafe will cater for the needs of all those using the  Winnersh Community Centre and the leisure facilities at the recreation ground.

The brainchild of Claire Pulleyn and Lisa Lainsbury, the cafe will be run as a commercial venture with the full support of the Parish Council.

The cafe will serve speciality coffees and other drinks, cakes, savouries, sweets and ice cream.

The cafe was opened by Cllr Jill Plant, Chairman of the Recreation & Amenities Committee, who welcomed this valuable new addition to the facilities provided at the Bearwood Recreation Ground.

The cafe will initially open:
10am - 6pm on Mon, Tue, Wed and Fri; 12noon - 6pm on Thu;
8:30am - 4pm on Sat;
10am - 2pm on Sun
but may stay open longer if there is sufficient customer demand in the summer.

The longer opening times on Saturdays will mean that players and spectators of the Winnersh Rangers Football Club will be well catered for!

Claire and Lisa with Cllr Jill Plant

Pavilion Cafe Opens                                                  May 2010

News in Brief                                                          February 2010

Battle of the Bands off to great start  The third Battle of the Bands supported by the Winnersh Neighbourhood Action Group got off to a great start on 29th January at the Wokingham Youth Centre. Seven bands performed in front of an enthusiastic audience of over 300.  The other heats take place on Fridays 26 February and 26 March with the final on 30 April. For details see the NAG website under Battle of the Bands.

Litter Pick to show that littering is unacceptable   Join fellow parishioners on Sunday 21 March to remove some of the litter from our streets and promote awareness that littering is just not acceptable. Part of the national BIG tidy up campaign.

Wokingham Information Network (WIN) launched   An online and telephone based guide to services, support, organisations and activities for families and adults in the Wokingham Borough has just been launched. The guide aims to ensure that everyone has the chance to make the most of their talents and fulfil their potential. This is a recently launched service and is being updated and added to all the time. See WIN.

Winnersh Fete 2010 - Help Wanted!   The third Winnersh Fete of recent years will be held on Saturday 19th June. Why not join in? We’d like to encourage as many local charities and voluntary groups as possible to have a stall or perform in the arena (and keep any profits to further their work) and also very much welcome local businesses to participate (for a small fee). Any individuals who would like to help would also be very welcome as the overall organisation falls to only a very small core of volunteers. If you or your group would like to participate please get in touch!

New Councillor for the New Year                           January 2010

The Parish Council is delighted to welcome Frank Breedlove as a new councillor. Frank was co-opted to the Council at the December meeting of the full council.

Frank is married with two grown daughters and has lived with his wife, Maggie, in Sindlesham for the past ten years. They moved from Finchampstead in 1999, having lived their for over thirteen years, when the second of their two daughters married and left a rather large house with just the two of them rattling around in.

He has over twenty years experience as a finance director working in both large international and small commercial organisations. For the past fifteen years, Frank has run his own successful consultancy, helping diverse organisations manage change as it impacts upon people, processes and systems.

Frank is a governor at The Emmbrook School and at Loddon Primary School and is a member of the Winnersh Neighbourhood Action Group.

See the Councillors page for a complete listing of Winnersh Parish Councillors

For more local news see News 2009

Winnersh Litter Pick                                               March 2010

Winnersh residents turned out on Sunday 21st March to help clean up the streets of Winnersh. As part of the national Big Tidy Up, volunteers from Winnersh collected rubbish from around Winnersh and Sindlesham to help improve our local environment and to raise awareness that most of us do not find discarding litter on our streets acceptable behaviour.

Organised by Winnersh Parish Council, the litter pick volunteers included Bearwood Junior Community Wardens, 2nd Winnersh Brownies, NAG members, Councillors and other Winnersh residents.

At its meeting in March the Parish Council discussed the draft infrastructure proposals for the Wokingham Core Strategy and has formally commented to Wokingham Borough Council as follows:

-   it is a major omission that there is little consideration of the impact of the developments on transport infrastructure outside the major development areas

-   the Winnersh Relief Road will be needed to accommodate increased traffic volumes from the Wokingham and especially the Arborfield Strategic Development Locations (SDLs) –  it seems to be assumed that the relief road will be completed, yet this is dependent upon completion of the Hatch Farm development, which itself is outside the scope of the SDLs; a partial development of the Hatch Farm site would mean that the relief road is unlikely to be completed

-   traffic modelling information has still not been made available (despite it having been requested) – this is needed in order to fully comment on the proposals

-   the Council supports the proposal for a new Ashridge interchange, even if access is only to be in an eastwards direction, but considers that this will only have a small impact on traffic flows to the west of Wokingham and that a full interchange is needed

Even Greater Need for Relief Road                        March 2010

Volunteers gather before setting out to clean up the streets of Winnersh

The third Winnersh Village Fete brought the Winnersh community together for a fun afternoon on 19th June. Local people turned out in large numbers to support the many voluntary groups running stalls, presenting displays and performing in the arena.

The Parish Council also provided plenty of other attractions to keep people amused and entertained. Arena events included a birds of prey demonstration, dog agility trials, disco and street dance and musical numbers.

Attractions included a free mega-slide, obstacle course and surfboard simulator, a brass band, hurdy-gurdy organ, dog fly-ball racing and the ever popular Circus Scene  providing more fun for children while they learnt circus skills. The displays in the main hall covered model railways, war games, local trees and environment and the history of Winnersh.

Successful third year for Winnersh Fete               June 2010

The birds of prey display was

a particular favourite

New innovations at the fete this year included children’s arts and crafts in the Hands-On Arts Pavilion and the Winnersh Team Challenge where teams were challenged to be the fastest to cross a ‘virtual river’ using only planks and beer crates.

Visitors were well catered for by the Scouts’ tea tent and BBQ, the newly-opened Pavilion Cafe in the Allnatt Pavilion and a licensed bar. An ice cream van, candy floss stall and strawberries and cream stall were also on hand.

Also see the 2010 Fete page for more on the fete and who participated, the Picture Gallery and the Wokingham Times website.for a video summary of the afternoon.

Work to strengthen the embankments of the bridge over the A329(M) has being carried out during August, September and October. The work entailed road closures and one-way working.

The  B3030 (Robinhood Lane / Davis Street) running between the Winnersh Crossroads and Twyford was closed to traffic for several weeks between its junctions with Bluebell Meadow and Davis Way. Pedestrians and cyclists were still able to cross the bridge during this period.

At other times during the bridge works traffic lights controlling one-way traffic were in place.

The work was carried out by Balfour Beatty, the Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) highways contractor. It was necessary because the embankments have a history of instability and have subsided by more than a foot since being built, this movement having accelerated over the past two years.

Robinhood Lane Closed for Bridge Repairs    Updated Oct 2010

David Green was co-opted onto the Parish Council at its November meeting. He says “I was fortunate enough to obtain an allotment last year and this sparked my interest in becoming involved with the wider parish community.”

There are still two vacancies for Parish Councillors and Chairman, Cllr John Wakefield, would be happy to meet anyone interested and arrange for them to visit the Council offices and sit in at meetings.

New Councillor Co-opted                                           Nov 2010

The Environment Agency gave details of the measures it’s taking to reduce the risk of flooding in Winnersh and protect affected properties at a drop-in session at Winnersh Community Centre on 12 November.  

The meeting follows a detailed topographic survey by the Environment Agency earlier this year, which identified 134 affected properties.  

Residents attending the meeting also spoke to members of the new Winnersh Flood Action Group (FLAG) and the National Flood Forum (NFF), which will give a voice to community concerns about building on flood plains.

The Environment Agency’s measures include arranging for individual properties in the 1 in 50 flood plain to have free flood protection measures, paid for by local levy funding. They will be surveyed over the next few months and, depending on the results, will be issued with air brick defences and/or floodgates.

Winnersh to Receive Flood Protection Aid             Nov 2010

Residents of properties within the 1 in 100 flood zone were given information about the Environment Agency’s Floodline Warnings Direct Service, advice on making their properties more flood-resistant and guidance on what to do before, during and after a flood.

Winnersh Fete Beats the Storm Clouds                  June 2011

The Winnersh Summer Fete attracted even more people than last year despite warnings of bad weather. They were rewarded by a wide range of stalls, displays and activities - and by warm and sunny weather for much of the afternoon. Even a very heavy but thankfully short downpour mid-afternoon failed to dampen spirits and the Elements Dance School carried on with their performance during the rain - clearly believing that “the show must go on” - well done!

Many fete-goers stayed on until the end to see the very entertaining dog agility display (pictured)  and the many other attractions included birds of prey, taekwondo and Rock ‘N’ Roll dance displays.

Over 40 stalls included volunteer groups raising funds for their own activities and local businesses making people aware of what they can offer.  The Hands-On Arts Pavilion provided the opportunity for younger fete-goers to develop their craft skills while the 1st Winnersh Scouts provided both exercise (crate stacking and bungee running) and sustenance (burgers and drinks).

For details of all those taking part see here and for the Fete Picture Gallery see here. Also see further coverage from the Wokingham Times and on YouTube.

Thank you to all those who participated in the fete: stallholders, performers, the fete committee and all those who attended on the day!

2011 Civic Award presented to Mary Elliott             July 2011

Mary Elliott has served the community by being the key person responsible for the hall at St Mary’s Church for nearly twenty years.

As well as opening and closing the hall, ensuring the hall is always ready for its users and taking bookings, she has also organised plant sales to raise money to help with the hall’s upkeep.

In recognition of her long service to the Winnersh Community Mary was presented with a Civic Award at the July meeting of Winnersh Parish Council. Mary is pictured above on the right being given the award by Council Chairman David Green, joined by Cathy Whittington who nominated Mary for the award. Mary joins several other Winnersh “unsung heroes” who have been presented with the award in past years - see here for past winners of the award.