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04/03/08 : Minister praises “flagship” Reading and sees the flood plain at Kennet Meadows!
On a visit to Reading on 4 March, Local Government Minister John Healey MP praised Reading, the only Labour-controlled Council in the south-east as “a flagship Council which sets an example to others”.
“Faced with the same financial pressures as the five other unitary authorities in Berkshire,” he said, “Reading has been able to deliver the lowest Council Tax increase this year, without cutting services and while in fact maintaining a higher level of service than its neighbours.”
Leader of Reading Borough Council Cllr. David Sutton said he was delighted to welcome John Healey to Reading and describe the efficiency savings the Council had made.
Martin Salter MP took advantage of John Healey’s visit to Reading to take him out to the Brookmill estate near the Holy Brook and show him the Kennet flood plain where PRUPIM are proposing to build 7500 homes.
He said: “I was very pleased to get John Healey, who is responsible for flood recovery at the Department of Communities and Local Government, to see for himself the devastation that could be caused to areas of Reading if we allow developers to build in the functional flood plain which has protected this town for hundreds of years.”
Among those who met Mr Healey at Brookmill were Keith Leay from the Environment Agency, who showed the Minister maps of the flood plain between Reading and the M4, Labour Councillors Deborah Edwards, Paul Gittings and Pete Ruhemann, and Labour candidate for Minster Debbie Watson.
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