Thousands call for Thames Path in Reading to be protected

The Thames Path runs throughout Reading and crosses into Earley at the Kennet Mouth, which serves as the border between Reading and Wokingham Boroughs.

Previously, there were plans to build a ‘mass rapid transit’ (MRT) which would run from Thames Valley Park in Earley to Reading town centre, called the East Reading MRT.

However, the plan led to uproar from neighbours who use the path, with the ‘Save Our Ancient Riverside’ campaign fighting it.

READ MORE: Failed East Reading MRT scheme cost Reading council more than £800,000 

Although the MRT plans were shot down twice, there are fears the plan could resurface due to a ‘contradiction’ in Wokingham Borough Council policies.

On the one hand, the Earley stretch of the Thames Path has been  included as an area of proposed Local Green Space in the Wokingham Local Plan update.

But in the other, it has been ‘safeguarded’, as policy SS11 proposed in the 2020 Local Plan consultation reserves land running alongside the Thames Path for a ‘high quality express bus service or dedicated transport route – therefore leaving the option for a possible new MRT open.

Thousands of people have signed two petitions calling on Wokingham Borough Council to protect its stretch of the Thames Path.

The most recent one, calling for the Thames Path to be designated as Local Green Space, has received 2,254 signatures on Change.org.

A previous petition, which called for the second attempt to pass the East Reading MRT to be rejected -which received appoximately 2,200 signatures – was resubmitted.

READ MORE: Calls for talks after East Reading MRT is defeated a second time

Councillor Shahid Younis (Conservative, Bulmershe & Whitegates) presented the petitions on behalf of the Save Our Ancient Riverside (SOAR) campaign to the council at a meeting last week.

During the meeting, cllr Younis said: “This riverside space is a jewell in the crown of Wokingham. This area is most treasured by residents. It has taken hundreds if not thousands of years to produce the splendour that we witness today.

“This should not be thrown away lightly for a transport scheme of dubious value, that can’t show any plausible reduction in either congestion or improvement in air quality.

“Once the riverside is gone, it’s gone.”

He added that the two council policies were ‘contradictory’ and urged for the area’s consideration for an MRT to be dropped.

Although the Thames Path has been included as an area of proposed Local Green Space in the Wokingham Local Plan update, its designation has not been finalised yet.

The Thames Path in Earley as it appears in the Wokingham Local Plan update, which is the focus of the Save Our Ancient Riverside campaign. Credit: Wokingham Borough Council

In response to the petition, councillor Wayne Smith (Conservative, Hurst), the council’s executive member for planning and enforcement, said: “As part of our Draft Local Plan consultation in 2020, we proposed safeguarding land near Thames Valley Park Drive and the A3290 for a possible third crossing over the River Thames into South Oxfordshire.

“Safeguarding recognises this possibility and keeps the option open should a scheme progress in future but, at the moment, there is no viable proposal on the table nor any formal agreement among the local authorities involved to progress such a scheme.

“As part of our Local Plan Update: Revised Growth Strategy, which we recently finished consulting on, we then proposed nearby land on the southern bank of the River Thames as a Local Green Space.

“This means development here would only be acceptable in very limited circumstances, because of its importance as a greenspace.

The Thames Path and Kennet Mouth on the borough boundary of Reading and Earley. Credit: Save Our Ancient Riverside

“These two proposals aren’t incompatible with one another – they simply mean that, if the third Thames crossing became viable later on, we’d have to decide whether the potential benefits outweighed the impact on the Local Green Space.

“No final decision has been made on either policy at this stage and we’re still processing feedback from the Revised Growth Strategy consultation, which ran from November 2021 to January this year.

“Based on comments from both consultations, we’ll be putting a draft Local Plan before our full council this summer and residents will then have another six weeks to comment before it goes to a planning inspector for independent examination.”