Local Green Space for Winnersh
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Winnersh ward Learn more
by Prue Bray on 3 April, 2014
On April 2nd we held a public meeting at the Methodist Church to present our alternative ideas for regenerating Wokingham town centre. If you couldn’t make it, you can see a version of my presentation by clicking Lib Dem Regen presentation
The audience of 80 people returned a total of 62 feedback forms, which were overwhelmingly supportive of our ideas. A number of extra suggestions were made, which we will be following up.
You can also see a short video taken after the meeting here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPa1sqNP0JA Please note, the content is not controlled by the Lib Dems.
When you have had a look at our ideas, please feel free to fill in our feedback form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MPMRCPZ
And finally – because it is the idea which seems to have caused a bit of head-scratching – here is some of what I said at the meeting about our idea for a virtual town centre:
“The high street has to catch up with online shopping or it is doomed. And that’s why our regeneration ideas include what we are calling a “virtual town centre” hub.
Why are we proposing what to some people seems an outlandish idea? Well, more and more people are choosing to shop online. And we need to get them to spend their money in Wokingham and not with the likes of Amazon, which is not only not local but also has a questionable record on paying it’s fair share of taxes.
Online shopping is growing rapidly – while high street shopping isn’t. In January the Daily Telegraph ran an article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10563881/Pace-of-online-retail-revolution-shocks-leading-retailers.html
Data from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG shows that non-food online retail sales grew by 19.2pc in December, the fastest pace since March 2010.
This is despite overall retail sales growing by just 1.8pc, the slowest rate for a year. Online sales now account for 18.6pc of consumers spending, a record level, as families use their smartphones and tablets to buy products.
If our local shops aren’t online that’s potentially 20% of business they can kiss goodbye to. And it’s only going to get worse.
Online shopping isn’t going to replace the high street. People like to see things and try them before they buy. But physical shops and online retail complement each other. It’s called multichannel retailing. And it’s increasingly important.
So what would our virtual town centre be like? Every business conveniently in one place. No more faffing about with google. You could look for what you wanted on a single website or through a single phone app, order it, if it was something like a book, or make an appointment if it was a haircut you wanted. Then you could go in and buy it, having looked up the location of the business on the same website.
And we could go further and add click and collect. You could order a book from the local bookshop and a birthday cake from a local lady who makes and sells cakes and you could pick the cake and the book up from the same place – which we thought could double as a cafe, perhaps in Peach Street, with a couple of spaces reserved in the parking bays for click and collect customers.
And one step further, what if we could add home delivery, both items coming in a single van?
You wouldn’t have to order online, but at the least you could find out who stocks what you want so you know where to go to buy it. And all your money will be spent in the local economy, supporting local businesses.”
6 Comments
I think the ideas the Lib Dems have forwarded are infinitely better than those of the Tory councillors, We do not need any more housing in the town centre – we already have serious road congestion there and there are already huge housing developments going on to the north of Wokingham, near Coppid Beech, at the old Folly Court site and at Arborfield. WE need to retain all the green areas we can for the people of Wokingham to enjoy
Thanks for your comment. We are going to do our best to persuade the Council to modify its plans. The more people pushing in that direction, the less difficult the task will be – although it is never going to be easy.
With the loss of the cricket field to build more housing, I don’t see it as necessary to build any more houses in Wellington Road, but rather keep it all green,with the hotel over near the swimming pool. Like the virtual shopping centre idea which should help keep the existing businesses trading, if they sign up to the idea. We like to walk into Wokingham (while we are still fit enough to!) and try and shop there wherever possible.
The reason we have suggested houses there is simply because they would make money, which could then be used to do something in Peach Street, or somewhere else. Wellington House is a brownfield site, so we would not be building on any of the green space. This is the least liked part of our ideas and we knew that would be the case, but our view is that it would be an acceptable compromise to most people. Other ideas for how to make some money gratefully received. One already made is to build houses on part of the Easthampstead Road East car park, which is not really used.
Prue, the problem I can see with these plans is that there is no alternative proposed for the Wellington to Shute End link road. When the new station link road is open, the existing Station road will become one way. During planning it was considered acceptable to do this as the Wellington to Shute End link road would provide a future alternative link for traffic crossing the town centre from south to north. It is also hoped that this new link combined with improved traffic flow southbound through the one way Station Road will enable Denmark Street to become pedestrian only on weekends and outside of peak hours during the week.
Another consequence of removing this link will be increased traffic crossing town via the residential streets of Langborough Road, Easthampstead Road and Goodchild Road and directly past three junior/infant schools..
Thanks for this. In fact, the Council’s view is that the new road through Elms Field is supposed to be used only by people wishing to access the new housing, although it does go through to Shute End. And they have designed it for those low levels of traffic. I have pointed out to them that people are not going to want to drive all the way round via the new link road to get from Carnival Pool to the town centre.
I think it is the new Southern and Northern Distributor Roads which are likely to make it possible to pedestrianise Denmark Street by taking traffic out of the town centre, although they are several years away. These roads are needed because of the new housing in the Strategic Development Locations North and South of Wokingham. The Southern road in particular will take traffic away from the town, and should also help the residential area around Langborough Road, as it will lessen the need for people to find a way to cut through.