Reading has an incredibly rich and fascinating history, as residents can discover for themselves with a visit to Reading Museum, the Museum of English Rural Life, or even just a wander around the Abbey Ruins.
Retaining and celebrating our local heritage while at the same time ensuring development and giving residents access to the high quality, modern facilities they and the town deserve can be a delicate balance. However, the opening of our new affordable homes for key workers at Arthur Hill last week shows how both can be successfully achieved.
The Arthur Hill swimming pool on Kings Road was a much-loved facility in the town having been built in 1911. However, with it being run at a loss and in need of uneconomic refurbishment, we took the difficult decision to close it.
This provided the opportunity to make two fantastic things happen in the town with widespread benefits, which I’m pleased to say have now both been achieved.
Firstly, we recognised the need for a modern swimming pool in east Reading that everyone could use and be proud of, and we now have that in the shape of Palmer Park Leisure Centre, which opened in December 2022.
Our community pool there has something for everyone, including family fun, aqua fit, swim school for beginners and non-swimmers, women- and girls-only swims, and age 60+ sessions. In the summer we’ll also be opening two new swimming pools at Rivermead – a 25m eight-lane competition pool alongside a teaching and diving pool, together with ‘splash pads’ for our youngest residents.
Secondly, we’ve now been able to make the best possible use of the old Arthur Hill site, which will shortly become home to 15 key worker households on our housing register.
Social workers, nurses, teachers, and police officers are among the vital workers, contributing to Reading’s growth and safety, who are eligible to rent out the new council-owned flats.
Jim, who works at Prospect Park Hospital, was one of the key workers to view his flat for the first time at our opening on Thursday and was pleased by what he saw. Currently living in a small room in a house share with five other people, he said: “I’m lost for words, I didn’t expect it to be so amazing. This is a huge upgrade – my mind is blown. It’s fantastic, like a dream.”
We’ve retained the front façade at Arthur Hill, to preserve the character and heritage of the building, which is over 110 years old and locally listed. The accommodation applies Passivhaus principles to create environmentally friendly and low-energy buildings, contributing to our net-zero by 2030 ambition. Triple glazing, air source heat pumps to retain and reuse existing heat generated within the buildings, and solar panels on the roof will all ensure that energy bills for our key worker tenants will be as low as possible.
We will continue to do all we can to build new homes for Reading’s residents who need them, with the Arthur Hill flats forming part of our investment of over £110m to provide 400 affordable new homes between 2021 and 2025.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and ward member for Southcote
