A retiring councillor has spoken about his regret in the inability to move ahead with a third Thames bridge, and has criticised neighbouring authorities for ‘refusing to engage’.
Tony Page, the outgoing mayor of Reading, stepped down at the local elections after serving 51 years as a councillor, most recently in the Abbey ward.
One of his main political responsibilities was as lead councillor for transport, a role he held from 2008 to 2023.
For years, Labour has been pushing for a third bridge over the River Thames which would link Thames Valley Park in Earley with Henley Road and Caversham Park Road, an area which falls under South Oxfordshire and Oxfordshire County Council.
Both councils oppose the prospect of a third bridge.
Oxfordshire County Council is the highways authority for the whole county, with South Oxfordshire District being the planning authority.
“They are hopelessly parochial,” Mr Page said of them. “Oxfordshire County Council still completely refused to recognise that the south of the county is effectively part of their area: their refusal to engage with us properly around the growth of Reading north of the Thames, the refusal to engage properly about a Third Bridge, or more park and ride sites north of the river.
“South Oxfordshire is a pathetically insular authority, it isn’t really a proper council, it’s a series of parish councils that get brought together periodically.
“They all have their little parish council bases, but do they focus properly as a district council? No.
“And Oxfordshire is very similar.”
He continued: “They don’t have a real focus on the south. But if we resurrected a discussion about boundary expansion and we haven’t and we won’t be in the near future, they will say ‘oh, no, no, go away.’
“Yet the people in places like Sonning Common, Peppard and those areas north of Reading Borough look south and they want to see better communication links with Reading.
“They don’t look forward to having to drive across two bridges in order to get elsewhere beyond Reading, so there is that refusal on the part of South Oxfordshire to engage.
“I have desperately tried over many years to do that.”
He added Matt Rodda, the Labour MP for Reading East and Theresa May, the Conservative MP for Maidenhead have both lobbied for better cross Thames travel links as well.
Mr Page continued: “I have tried to get that dialogue going but they won’t engage, it’s a sad reflection and it’s irresponsible because they are supposed to represent the people of South Oxfordshire and they palpably don’t.
“If you were to ask me what’s my single biggest failure, it’s to have got Oxfordshire and South Oxfordshire to engage meaningfully about transport issues.
“It’s been very depressing to see, I think they have been irresponsible in their failure to serve the interests who live in the part of South Oxfordshire.”
He went on to suggest that a park-and-ride service could be set up between Oxfordshire and Reading.
The current Reading Buses 25 route runs between the town and Sonning Common, and Thames Travel buses X39 and X40 run to Woodcote, Wallingford and Oxford.
However, there have been no apparent moves by the Oxfordshire councils to establish park-and-ride services.
Mr Page said: “They [Oxfordshire councils] talk about wanting to promote public transport but where are the park and ride sites being offered in South Oxfordshire by either the county council or the district, that can come forward with a single site.
“We were told over the years ‘oh yes, we want to support public transport’, but park and ride sites will be a pretty fundamental part of that.
“They’ve got them all round Oxford and they work perfectly well there, but they can’t be bothered to face up to their responsibilities around Reading, which is just as important in this part of the country.”
A third bridge forms part of Reading Borough Council’s transport strategy 2040.
