At the beginning of 2024 we're taking a look at what's likely to unfold in the town during the coming year. Here's what’s happening and what’s not happening.

 
Happening

Reading FC - the ongoing saga of our bedevilled football club is likely to come to a head either through a sale or bankruptcy, perhaps the latter whereby real fans can get involved in running the club might even be the preferrable outcome by now, especially if relegation seems likely.

New theatre quarter - the good news is that work has started on revamping the Hexagon and the area surrounding Minster Quarter area following a 'Levelling Up' grant. Whereas new facilities are to be welcome, it is a shame that the opportunity hasn't been taken to increase capacity so that we can see bigger names play in the town.

Potholes - finally something seems to be happening about the bunkers in our roads with the council rolling out a large programme of repairs.

Lots of flats - see our separate feature on the Local Plan for Reading which details how 10,000 new flats are about to sprout up in the centre of town.

Entertainment not retail - as footfall drops thanks to home shopping and competition from other retail centres such as Bracknell and Wokingham, retail buildings in Reading are seeing a change of use into entertainment venues. Spinners already offers bowling, crazy golf and darts in the Broad Street Mall and Hollywood Bowl is to shortly open in The Oracle, for example, providing a far better range of things to do in the town centre. And a further two centres are set to open , another at the Broad St Mall and another at the old Dawson's on the Vastern roundabout.

Road delays are inevitably set to increase - London Road between the Sutton Seeds roundabout and Cemetery Junction is set to become a single lane into town, and much of Oxford Road will also be given over to bus lanes. There are also plans to turn one of the lanes along London Road past the hospital into a bike lane.

Bus journeys may get better - thanks to the introduction of the new bus lanes some bus journeys may be quicker, but Reading is approaching saturation with the No 17 particularly overcrowded at peak times and it seems that the town urgently needs to look at a better cross town alternative, but this does not seem to have been contemplated within current planning.

Increased taxes – in what is set to be an election year some lucky people will undoubtedly benefit from the predicted abolishment of inheritance tax, but for those of us living in Reading it will be another 5% on council tax that is truly predictable.

 

Not Happening

Bottle Collection - delivering bottles to a bottle bank is a strange concept for many people in the UK, where glass is collected from home, but not in Reading where trips to bottle banks are called for. Often in residential areas where, apparently, people love to drop their noisy empties at 2am. However, it does mean that we can make do with four bins instead of five. RBC have promised a bottle collection service, but given the current economic climate this is unlikely to become a reality.

MRT - the long mooted link between Thames Valley Park and the station remains unlikely to make any progress, with opposition from locals and Wokingham BC. The big issue is how to cross the Kennet where the dreadful but listed Horseshoe Bridge prevents an elegant solution. So, nothing will happen - apart from introduction of a bus lane on London Road (see above).


The Third Bridge - another grand project set to go nowhere is the vision of a third bridge across the Thames from the end of the A329(M) to Sonning. With considerable opposition from South Oxfordshire BC this time, expect no progress on this in the coming year or beyond.

Reading Gaol - our useless government will undoubtedly prevaricate some more and nothing will happen to this huge local asset that has lain empty for over a decade as a monument to Tory incompetence and greed, where getting a high ticket price from developers trumps all local considerations. A burgeoning urban area deserves resources for culture, art and entertainment. In Reading those are fragmented over a number of good but small centres and consolidating some of them would make a lot if sense. Even Bansky is on board.

Indie Businesses - the decline of the few independent businesses in the town is likely to continue in the face of voracious landlords and a couldn't care less council. Surely it's time to designate an 'independent quarter' along with market stalls in high footfall areas where retail entrepreneurs can get their ideas off the ground, such as the square in front of the station. Blue Collar have proven what can be done.

Litter and Graffiti - despite the best efforts of the council, there seem to be few walls in the town that are not tagged by now, increasingly including private homes, and litter remains a massive problem. You can report litter or graffiti issues to the council here.