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SOUTHCOTE GLOBE

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NEWSLETTER

NEXT MEETING:
Tuesday 28th September 7.30pm Southcote Neighbourhood Advice Centre, Coronation Square. All welcome.
Speaker: Local naturalist Adrian Lawson who will talk about Kennet Meadows and give details of walks he will be leading.

NEXT WORK PARTY AT CORONATION SQUARE GARDENS:
Sunday Sep5th 9am onwards. If weather is very bad-Sep12th.

RE-CYCLING:
Did you know that domestic batteries can now be re-cycled locally?
Bins situated inside the Advice Centre on Coronation Square, the Library and Aldi are available during opening hours.
Also aluminium foil can now be re-cycled at Coronation Square.
GLOBE member Jill Hodges recently attended a meeting of Re3, the partnership between Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham Borough Councils and Waste Recycling Group WRG. The problem of contamination of recycled material was highlighted.
The red wheelie bin should be used for the following items ONLY:
Mixed paper & card [shredded paper to be contained in a box, eg a cereal carton].
Food tins, drink cans.
Aerosols, plastic bottles [tops removed]. NO plastic bags.
Putting anything else into the bin contaminates the load, which then has to go to landfill.
Locally glass can be recycled at Coronation Square.
Tetrapak, textile and book recycling is available at Sainsbury's Calcot.

CORONATION SQUARE GARDENS:
Six volunteers worked on the gardens on Sunday May 9th, weeding and planting perennials. There were favourable comments from several passers-by, which is encouraging.

REMEMBERING TERRY FARRELL:
Following RESCUE, GLOBE members and friends joined Terry's family at Coronation Square to put up the plaque dedicated to our former Chairman and his involvement in our community.

RESCUE 2010:
The Rivers and Open Spaces Clean-Up Event took place over the weekend March 13th -14th.
Southcote GLOBE worked on Saturday 13th. Volunteers cleared the area between the Burghfield Road, along the Holy Brook Linear Park and across to Southcote Mill, including the footpath to Southcote Farm Lane.

Graham, John and Gloria with rubbish from Linear Park......................................and some more!

GREAT NEWS ON KENNET MEADOWS!
Developers have scrapped plans to build a 7500 house mini-town on the Meadows following years of opposition from residents and politicians. David Morris, Director of Prudential's property branch, PRUPIM, said " The world has changed since the project was first envisaged.Following a fresh look at the proposals, in consultation with other major stakeholders, we felt that they were no longer capable of delivering appropriate returns for the risk involved". Since the plan was originally proposed in 2002, there has been fierce opposition on grounds of flooding, wildlife and transport,from local residents and politicians, conservation organisations, and the Environment Agency.
This follows nearly 25years of fighting to save this wildlife-rich area from various development proposals.

CORONATION SQUARE GARDENS :
The gardens were tidied up and some shrubs planted at the most recent work parties.

MEETING 26th January 2010
We welcomed Richard Denny from Caversham GLOBE, and Ricky Josey from Oxford Rd. Community Garden, who told us of their work and ideas. There will be an Open Day at the Oxford Rd Garden on July 17th.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING- 29TH SEPTEMBER 2009
After reports from the Chairman and the Treasurer, the following were elected to serve for the next year:
Chairman: Jill Beadon
Vice Chair: June Farrell
Secretary: Caroline Martin
Treasurer: Peter Beadon
Gary Murphy & Gary Champion,two members of Southcote Neighbourhood Action Group [NAG] then told us about the role of NAG and how it works with the Police and the Local Authority on issues such as social behaviour, drugs and traffic problems.

CORONATION SQUARE GARDENS:
Volunteers weeded and generally tidied up the beds at work parties in April, June and August. Fortunately most of the planting can tolerate very dry weather and we hope to put in more plants such as lavender and rosemary in the future.

Here are the results of our morning's work on April 19th:

EILEEN BOWSHER:
Southcote GLOBE is sad to report the death of Eileen on 23rd March 2009.
Eileen was a former member of our group and a tireless campaigner for community issues in Southcote over very many years. She will be sadly missed.

RESCUE 2009:
The Rivers and Open Spaces Clean-Up [RESCUE] weekend this year was 14-15th March.
GLOBE members and friends worked on Sat 14th, cleaning up along the Holybrook from Burghfield Rd. to Circuit Lane, across Circuit Lane Meadows, from Southcote Farm Lane to Circuit Lane Meadows, and along part of the Kennet towpath. We always hope that there will be less rubbish each year, but there was still a depressingly large amount.

Rubbish collected between the Burghfield Rd. and Brunel Rd. Car Park

JULY 18th 2008 KENNET VALLEY PROPOSALS TURNED DOWN !!
The Prudential's proposals for 3500 houses and associated infrastructure in the Kennet Valley have been thrown out by the Regional Minister for the South East, Jonathan Shaw MP, who said that the development was not viable.
This follows strong criticism by the Environment Agency, a campaign by local people, bird watchers, anglers, community and interest groups and local councillors, and a petition signed by 1500 people which was taken to the House of Commons by Reading MP Martin Salter.
This doesn't stop Prudential from making further applications, so we need to remain watchful !

MORE WORK ON THE GARDENS !!
On Sunday 13th July 2008, members tackled the weeds that were over-running the garden beds at Coronation Square and laid a mulch of bark chippings. There have been very favourable comments from local traders.

CORONATION SQUARE :
On Sunday April 13th 2008, GLOBE members worked hard to clean the overgrown planting beds at the Coronation Square shopping precinct. Grass and weeds were dug out and more plants put in.

KENNET MEADOWS:
We are hoping to arrange walks through the Meadows. Watch out for information on this site and for posters in the library etc.

Path by River Kennet