A call has been made for a street to be named after a former Mayor of Reading, after a suggested street name of ‘Electric Avenue’ was rejected.
Councillors in Reading recently discussed an address name for the ‘Old Power Station’ development in Vastern Road, near the town centre.
The development is being undertaken by Berkeley Homes, and will see the former SSE power station south of the River Thames replaced with 209 apartments.
Councillors have called for a new street to be named after the late former mayor and councillor Bet Tickner at a recent planning meeting.
Councillor Richard Davies (Labour, Thames) said: “Some people might think that it’s a minor part of what we do in planning.
“But it’s worth remembering that these names are likely to be in perpetuity written into the map of Reading, so it’s not unimportant at all actually.”
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Councillors rejected two suggested names for the street.
The preferred option was ‘Electric Avenue’ in memory of the former use of the site as an electric works and power station.
An alternative would have been Albury Way, named after Frederick William Albury, the architect of the original building on the site.
Both of these names were suggested by the developer Berkeley Homes.
But cllr Davies stuck to his guns and came up with an alternative street name.
He said: “Neither of these two names the ward councillors are particularly enamoured of.”
He instead suggested the street should be called Bet Tickner Way after Bet Tickner, who was a councillor for 16 consecutive years, from 2002 to 2018.
She was also the Mayor of Reading for 2006-2007.
The council learned of her passing on Wednesday, January 10.
Cllr Davies said: “Bet was known for many things, being a hardworking councillor who cared about the area and cared about her constituents.
“The road will support sustainable travel from the river through to the station, and if we support sustainable travel it would be fitting that we named it after Bet because she was a big cyclist and a big proponent of sustainable travel, alongside the many other good qualities that she had as a councillor.
“We all thought a great deal of her and miss her, we think this would honour her appropriately.”
The suggestion received unanimous support from fellow councillors.
Cllr Karen Rowland (Labour, Abbey) said: “As a former Abbey ward colleague and the councillor that replaced Bet when she stood down in 2018, I couldn’t think of a more fitting person for a sustainable route to name this after.”
Councillors agreed to suggest Bet Tickner Way for the Old Power Station development at the planning applications committee meeting on Wednesday, May 29.
The street name will be considered by the geographic information system (GIS) team for an official decision to be made at a future planning meeting.
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