If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you wasted a few hours this weekend sitting in your stationary car as the traffic jams built up around you. Tailbacks from the closed M4 snaked through Reading town centre, hitting all the roadworks and causing hours of delays through Saturday and Sunday.
There are complex, national public-policy issues at the heart of this but, let’s be clear, much of this is basic common sense that can and should be managed locally. For example do we really need road closures for non-urgent works across the town at the same time as motorway closures? What discussions have gone on between the Labour-run council and companies carrying out roadworks to coordinate them?
Green councillor Doug Cresswell is standing up for Reading’s health
If you’ve lived in Reading for any length of time, you’ll know all about the traffic. What you might not know is that the air outside your front door exceeds not one, but three World Health Organisation air-pollution limits (PM2.5, PM10 and NO2)! Green councillor Doug Cresswell highlighted this at a recent council meeting. In parts of central Reading you’re breathing in more double the World Health Organisation restrictions for Nitrogen Dioxide and taking in dangerous levels of lots of other unpleasant particles.
The traffic in Reading is more than an inconvenience. It’s an urgent health risk to Reading’s residents.
Greens working hard to tackle congestion and improve air quality
We need a transport revolution in Reading to give us air we can breathe and rid us of traffic gridlock. The first thing we think about should not be how do we get more cars on our roads, it should be less. We desperately need a real shift towards walking, cycling and public transport that goes where we need at a price we can afford.
Greens say yes to quicker response times for pedestrians at crossings to encourage more people to walk.
Yes to decent segregated cycle lanes in the right places. Greens support allowing cycling carefully through the Reading Station underpass – which is going to be consulted on soon.
Yes to more affordable buses. In Newbury Reading Buses didn’t charge on World Car Free Day. Why don’t we try this in Reading.
And finally yes to a strategy for charging electric vehicles. The Labour-run council has been dragging its feet on this for too long.
Its time for change, and it needs to happen now before our air becomes too thick with indecision and inaction to breathe.
Greens are working for a fairer, greener and cleaner town
As the second largest party on Reading Borough Council your seven Green Party councillors will keep working hard for a fairer, greener and cleaner town. Get involved and help us make a difference:
reading.greenparty.org.uk/get-involved
By Green councillor Rob White
Leader of the main opposition group on Reading Borough Council