No to Elms Field development. No to Mark 'Trademark' Ashworth. @No2MarkAshworth.

   WBC claim to have consulted the public on these plans. Can anyone list a single change that has been made to these plans as a result of the extensive consultation?.

   This is exactly the attitude of WBC that we are complaining about. "We ask for your comments, and we listen to them all, honest, but we won't change anything because it won't work if we do that, and anyone who disagrees with us is just causing chaos and hasn't got a clue about anything".

The most part of this strategy is already decided. It will be rubber stampped and on it will go. It doesn't matter two tiny specs of dust what anyone else thinks. It was already decided before the sham "consultations" last summer that so few people evn knew about, and pretty much nothing was changed as a result.

Cllr Deegan's request is for us to get behind the plans and stop complaining, and that anyone who disagrees just doesn't understand the benefits. How can anyone manke any suggestions of improvements or changes to the plans when these are seen as disagreements and are immediately dismissed with such contempt? That's not democracy, that's a dictatorship with a pretence of public involvement!

I think something should be done with the town centre, I honestly do, and I think there are elements to this plan that are actually quite good. I'd like to support them. But I DON'T think that building a road straight through almost our only town centre park, with all sorts of shops and houses around it is the way to do it. I also desparately do not think we need a new supermarket. Building one will mean that Waitrose will suffer. It could even close. So we build over a nice green space, and end up with a derilct car park at the other end of town. But if I submit this to the "consultation", my disagreements will be ignored and my support taken out of context and paraded in front of all to see.

If the only think I can control is where a few flowerpots go, or how wide the pavement is, there is zero point in me saying a thing.

I will be voting VERY carefully next month. VERY carefully. It will not be for any councillor responsible for, or supportive of, our current waste mis-management or anyone responsible for, or supportive of, the current planning group's contempt of anyone in the local area.

I hope there are significant changes in the council in May, but based on the apathy that generally exists in Wokingham's voters, mainly due to the ease at which the blue majority just keep their seats, which is in turn self-fulfilling, I don't ever believe anything will change.

So much for democracy.

   "Ellison Way is named after Margaret who intended that the Elms field should be for the people of Wokingham for their enjoyment and leisure for ever."

http://www.stpauls-wokingham.org.uk/history2b.htm

   What HatsOfDoom said.

   This is not a political point - but I stood as a councillor because like many I care about my community and I want the best for it. I know Matt and we get on - I have a lot of time for him (I am sure that this will not go down well with some) but I can't for the life of me understand why we are doing this when money could be better spent elsewhere; when we cut elderly subsidy for travel which is essential for them; when funding to support charities who provide valuable service in our community is cut.

The intention for the redevelopment of Wokingham is laudable and I feel we should aspire to that but not at the expense of all the cuts and sale of buildings that Wokingham have announced. Why not take a loan (if they really have to take one out) to support our community - that is why the councillors and staff at Wokingham are there for.

I agree with Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham comments. Cllr. Tahir Maher

   * go to Reading.

   Mr Deegan - support, like respect, is earned NOT pleaded for!!!

WBC continues to make token efforts to consult on issues that have an impact on all, and then does what it likes ..

Wokingham should concentrate on being a busy market town with its existing centre fully populated with a diverse range of shops, services and green spaces. If we want the usual identical ranges of shops as everywhere else we can go the Reading.

It is Mr Deegan who is out of touch ..

   Cllr. Tahir Maher, can we afford this investment at a time when the high streets are dying, building costs are high, loans are expensive, and basically it's not a good time to invest? When you stack that against "Wokingham is a small market town, with a massive shopping centre just up the road at Reading", is it really what's best for Wokingham borough? Do any individuals benefit from pushing this through?

   What gets me is the cost of this development - why are we as residents having the debt at Wokingham effectively doubling without our consent. It's projected to cost £87m, can we afford this, when services are being cut and we are being told that we don't have any funds for these services and staff being made redundant

   Anthony Vick - are public toilets in the plans for the regenerated town centre? I thought the council had ruled them out.

   Wokingham has a charm; any improvements need to compliment its character not turn it into another Clone town. We should be enhancing the open space and building around it to compliment it. I think another supermarket in the centre of Town will kill off many of our smaller retailers - why is it so important? I guess because the sale of the land and the buying supermarket chain will provide funds for redevelopment elsewhere. It's a terrible, almost irreversible, plan which will damage Wokingham for years to come.

Yes we need to reinvigorate parts of the Town, yes we need public toilets and baby changing, but is this really the best way to do it? I'm not convinced.

   According to Deegan everyone who puts forward a constructive comment on the absurd parts of the redevelopment is living in the past. In other words shut up I know what is good for you. The supermarket, according to Mary Portas, has killed the High Street so putting one in the town has to be the most absurd of all the proposals. Clearly, Deegan therefore thinks that Mary Portas is also living in the past as well. I don't think so. Good riddance to Deegan. The results of these 'consultations' have been ignored by WDC and that is why we are all in this mess today.

   PoneRana;

You are right; if they build retail space on Elms Field, it will just take trade away from the other end of the town centre......If WBC doubt this, then they just need to look at Bracknell to see how Princess Square killed off the old Broadway shops.

The pressure on small, independent retailers in the town centre will be further increased; they're already struggling because of the large, out of the town centre, supermarkets that sell everything and not just food. They also don't have expensive, nor confusing parking which puts people off of visiting the town centre.

I have said on here before, but it is worth repeating; It appears that WBC sees land with buildings on as an asset; cash from council tax and business rates but, they see open green land as a liability because of costs to maintain it and to keep it looking nice.

   The effect of new shops om Elms Field will eventually be the desolation of the opposite end of town. What is the council doing about the empty shops in the All Saints end of Peach Street besides hiding them behind arts projects. Very few people object to the regeneration of the centre of the town, what we object to is losing so much of Elms Field to a council that has already taken the Carnival Field away from the town.

There are other oportunities in the centre of town to add shops and accomodation without losing Elms Field. For example the area between Argos and Broad Street cries out for some redevelopment. The row of delapidated garages could be replaced by shops and accomodation over them, with only the estate agent needing to relocate.

When the council offices on Elms Field were demolished the land should have been refurbished and given back to the town as the green space that it was originally.

The council needs to start listening to the people of Wokingham and listening to our worries.