Cycling campaigner calls for safer route to school

A WOMAN has launched a campaign for cycling routes in Caversham to be better connected and help children get to school safely.

Hilary Smart is a member of Kidical Mass Reading, a community group which encourages families to cycle together.

She is particularly concerned for pupils attending the new River Academy in Richfield Avenue, which is due to open in September.

Reading Borough Council granted planning permission for the secondary school and sixth form in 2022 and it is currently under constuction next to the revamped Rivermead leisure centre.

The academy, which will have 1,500 pupils on its roll, will be run by the Maiden Erlegh Trust.

The council is spending £200,000 contributed by the trust on widening and improving pedestrian and cycle routes on the north and south sides of Richfield Avenue.

There are already two cycle routes which pass the school site, the Round Berkshire Cycle Route and the Reading R4. Both are on the Richfield Avenue cycle path.

This means that students who cycle to school from Caversham will be able to use these routes but they will also have to traverse the Caversham Road roundabout to reach them.

Mrs Smart, who lives in Caversham with husband Simon and two children, Michael, six, and four-year-old Sebastian, said cycling infrastructure in the area should be improved. She said: “The council is building a new school by Rivermead and putting in cycling infrastructure along Richfield Avenue but it does not intend to do any work to connect this new bike lane to the cycling route over Caversham Bridge.

“Therefore, if the kids have any sense, they won’t be going along Richfield Avenue using the new paths built with the funding, they’ll cut straight down to the river.

“This means that the children who do cycle will have to navigate either a blind corner on Caversham Bridge and narrow unfenced paths by the river or the awful roundabout by the Crowne Plaza.”

The council says that about 509 children from Caversham will attend the school and, of those, 214 will walk and 15 will cycle.

Mrs Smart, an associate director at a finance company, says that if the cycling routes were better connected then more children would cycle, which would make them healthier.

She said: “We believe that if they joined up the bike lanes many more children would want to cycle to school. This would help them build independence and healthy habits and reduce car traffic over the bridge at drop-offs.

“Many secondary school children are mature enough to cycle to school independently. We are failing if the lack of safe infrastructure is the thing that stands in the way of them developing environmentally friendly and healthy habits.” Kidical Mass was launched in 2022 and now between 30 and 50 people meet monthly for a cycle around Reading and Wokingham.

The Smart family do not have a car after challenging themselves to do without one in 2021. They are members of a Co-wheels car share scheme for longer distances.

A spokesman for Reading Borough Council said the academy was designed to provide a single point of access from Richfield Avenue rather than having numerous entries in order to support security on site.

He said: “Upgrades are planned on Richfield Avenue to encourage students and staff to use it as the main route to and from the school.

“This includes the widening of the existing shared use facility on the western side and the creation of a shared use facility on the eastern side.

“The proposals also include the provision of a tiger crossing on Richfield Avenue to facilitate a safe crossing place for children travelling to and from the school and allow for a continual and improved connection between the south and the north of Reading.

“These improvements will help create additional capacity for both pedestrians and cyclists and encourage the use of alternative modes of travel and reduce car use in and around an already congested area at peak times.

“These changes are in line with the measures agreed at the planning application stage to mitigate the impacts of the development.

“The council acknowledges that the route under Caversham Bridge may not be ideal but the alternative route would also include a narrow section and conflict with a bus stop outside 222 Caversham Road.

“The route under the bridge is also shorter and does not require pedestrians/cyclists to cross the road at multiple locations.

“The council is aware of concerns raised over cycle access to the River Academy and this is due to be discussed at the forthcoming cycle forum.

“With regards to making this area safer and more attractive for cyclists, transport officers will review the current situation and, through the council’s new local transport plan and local cycling and walking infrastructure plan, look to bring forward improvements where these are feasible and funding is available.

“Through our cycle forum and other channels, we will continue to work with Reading Cycle Campaign, Kidical Mass and other local residents and stakeholders to deliver improvements to the cycle network in Caversham.”

The school’s travel plan proposes teaching pupils on road safety and cycle confidence training.

It also proposes having 120 secure and sheltered cycle parking spaces.

When Caversham and District Residents’ Association objected to the planning application for the new school it described 120 cycles spaces for 1,500 pupils as “grossly
inadequate.”

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