Reading Borough Council has reiterated its case to keep all of Tilehurst in Berkshire as discussions continue about local government reorganisation.
Tilehurst is currently split between the Reading Borough wards of Tilehurst, Kentwood, and the West Berkshire parishes of Tilehurst, Holybrook and Purley.
The area has been thrust into discussions about local government reorganisation as the Liberal Democrat controlled West Berkshire Council wants to join forces with two councils in Oxfordshire to create a new authority.
The proposal, which emerged last March, would see West Berkshire, South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse unite to form ‘Ridgeway Council’ – which would include the Tilehurst parishes, Calcot and Theale.
The Labour Party leadership at Reading Borough Council has proposed absorbing the Tilehurst parishes into a Greater Reading, and is maintaining this position as a consultation begins on Oxfordshire’s Local Government Reorganisation proposals.
Of the three options, two involve the creation of Ridgeway Council, with another simply creating a single Oxfordshire unitary council.
The consultation was launched online by the government today (Friday, February 6) and it will last for seven weeks until the end of March 26.
While Reading council submitted a formal bid to acquire the Tilehurst parishes if Ridgeway is created last November, this appears to have been rebuffed.
However, the government still has the power to hand the parishes over to Reading Borough following the consultation.
Liz Terry, the leader of Reading Borough Council, has stressed that West Berkshire was never meant to submit a bid to the government for reorganisation, as it is already a unitaryy authority.
Councillor Terry (Labour, Coley) said: “We have now had confirmation of the government’s position; that neither West Berkshire Council or Reading Borough Council were invited to submit bids as part of this phase of Local Government Reorganisation, which is something we have emphasised from the outset.
“At the same time, the Government has confirmed that it retains the option to modify any of the Oxfordshire proposals following this consultation and, as a statutory consultee, Reading Borough Council is encouraged to submit its representation as part of the consultation, which we now intend to do.
“To pretend that these three Tilehurst Wards are anything other than suburbs of Reading flies directly in the face of the government’s prescribed criteria that proposals should be based on ‘sensible economic geography.’
“From speaking to these residents’ face to face, and from our own independent surveys, residents living in these areas see themselves as part of Reading and often rely on services provided by Reading Council.
“It is important to emphasise that West Berkshire would cease to exist if proposals for a new ‘Ridgeway’ council are agreed. Residents of these three wards would find themselves on the outer fringes of a significantly larger and predominantly rural new council where their needs would not necessarily align with those of the rest of their new area.
“Reading’s proposal on the other hand fundamentally strengthens local democracy by aligning where people pay their Council Tax and where decisions are made, with local identity, local services and patterns of daily living. We do not believe clinging to boundary lines which were drawn up over a century ago and are now well out of date is a sensible approach to setting a boundary for a new authority which is likely to exist for decades to come.”
Results from a survey found 34-37 per cent of Tilehurst residents use Reading leisure centres, around 10 per cent of all visits to Reading leisure centres come from West Berkshire residents, rising to 30 per cent for Meadway Sports Centre.
Meawnhile, 60 per cent of Tilehurst Birch Copse residents preferred decisions to be made in Reading, rather than Newbury (37 per cent) or Abingdon (three per cent).
