Electricity Board Offices Vastern Road

[spectrum64]

This morning there were contractors vehicles in the car park and the final office workers appear to have left. Does any one know what is proposed here? Presumably the footpath from the bridge to the station will be incorporated.

[Mayfield]

No, but I'll give good odds it's flats

[piwacket]

No, but I'll give good odds it's flats

Oh! That’ll be different won’t it

[C.A.Versham]

Will there be lots of new Ohms?

[OLDMAN]

Doesn’t appear to be anything listed in RBC Planning Portal so maybe just a re-furb’ and rent out to someone else

[buseng]

Doesn’t appear to be anything listed in RBC Planning Portal so maybe just a re-furb’ and rent out to someone else

At least they can't say an unmitigated "yes" to more flats then, too frightened to say "no".

[Pooneil]

No, but I'll give good odds it's flats

Oh! That’ll be different won’t it

Just so long as they include a few more caffeine dispensaries for our coffeeshopopolis. And a Tesco Express.

[THC]

In the 19th century the overall mood of this forum would have been against the construction of red bricked terraced housing!

[chris_j_wood]

[Pooneil]

Unlike some, I don't have an objection per se to flats - so long as there is additional infrastructure also built to service them - GP surgeries, dental surgeries, at least some sort of suggestion of schooling. Is that too much to ask?

[dave m]

I don't understand the constant moaning about development of brown sites into residential.
At least it would make use of the river, and open it up

Agree, we'd be living in mud huts if some of the forum had their way

[buseng]

Unlike some, I don't have an objection per se to flats - so long as there is additional infrastructure also built to service them - GP surgeries, dental surgeries, at least some sort of suggestion of schooling. Is that too much to ask?

Also something resembling roads you can travel along, not cart tracks festooned with pretty lights & roadworks. Plus everything stood stationary.

[Pooneil]

I'm not entirely sure that an objection to seemingly endless proposals of blocks of 10-20 storey tower blocks automatically equates to a preference solely for wattle and daub

And even the whole doctor/dentist/school thing apart, if you're going to build what overall could be several thousand flats in the middle of town, even if only a fraction of them have cars that they use at peak times, you're also looking at extra cyclists, extra bus passengers, extra pedestrians. The town centre is a minor nightmare most rush hours, and we seem intent on just throwing more traffic (of any description) into that slow-moving stew. I don't remember seeing anything that suggests that this is being considered strategically or as a whole. It all seems to be "well this development won't cause much extra load, so we don't have to worry about it." Whilst that may be true of each individual development, add them altogether and it does make a significant effect, which seems to be being ignored.

(The fact that the council doesn't seem to have the proverbial pot to p... in probably doesn't exactly help them think of anything other than sticking-plaster fixes for this sort of thing - one suspects that for example the only light rail project they could actually imagine financing is a couple of aluminium curtain tracks for the chief exec's office windows...)

[peterson]

Will there be lots of new Ohms?

Ha! When there's finally some actual proposals for me to write about I might nick this!

It's earmarked for flats in the local plan. I'd rather see some sort of leisure uses. But at the very least, we should get to see the pedestrian route from the station to the bridge established.

[Mayfield]

I don't understand the constant moaning about development of brown sites into residential.
At least it would make use of the river, and open it up

Agree, we'd be living in mud huts if some of the forum had their way

Let me be clear, flats would not be my accommodation of choice, but there are some lovely ones and some people like them...however the fact is that RBC are not keeping up with the provision of services to support the number of dwellings it allows to be built.
When that changes, so may my attitude to them.

[zaskar]

It is not an easy site to redevelop, there is a large substation in the middle of the plot that would cost a huge amount to move. You can see why SSE didn't build their shiny new offices there.

[Dai Brainbocs]

Assuming the Caversham side of the river is safe from development, that must be the last site on the riverside. It must be worth a fortune

[zag]

Are we talking about this area?



Prime land if so...

[chris_j_wood]

Yes, that is part of it. It is this site here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.46044 ... a=!3m1!1e3

As you can see, the centre of the site is occupied by some pretty heavyweight switching gear.

[OLDMAN]

I notice when looking at that and nearby there are 4 large transformers down the side access nearer the river

Guess they won't be moving soon either

[BOY RACER]

Perhaps RBC should consider using the location for its Dedicated Travellers Site.

[windrush]

Where have the 'leccy board' moved to? I knew lads who worked in the large vehicle repair shop there, they had a heated workshop floor over 45 years ago when such things were a real rarity!

Pete.

[OLDMAN]

Just up the road in Forbury Place

[chris_j_wood]

Where have the 'leccy board' moved to? I knew lads who worked in the large vehicle repair shop there, they had a heated workshop floor over 45 years ago when such things were a real rarity!

Just up the road in Forbury Place

Forbury Place is a company head office style office block, rather than a workshop or operations base. If you look at the Google maps image I posted earlier, you certainly get the impression that the Vastern Road was more than just offices. Which begs the question, which I suspect Windrush was getting at, of where have the non-head-office functions gone.

[windrush]

Forbury Place is a company head office style office block, rather than a workshop or operations base. If you look at the Google maps image I posted earlier, you certainly get the impression that the Vastern Road was more than just offices. Which begs the question, which I suspect Windrush was getting at, of where have the non-head-office functions gone.

Yes Chris, where were all the large vehicles and vans etc rehoused? Possibly contracted out nowadays I suppose.

Pete.

[zaskar]

Forbury Place is a company head office style office block, rather than a workshop or operations base. If you look at the Google maps image I posted earlier, you certainly get the impression that the Vastern Road was more than just offices. Which begs the question, which I suspect Windrush was getting at, of where have the non-head-office functions gone.

Yes Chris, where were all the large vehicles and vans etc rehoused? Possibly contracted out nowadays I suppose.

Pete.

No, not contracted out, still in house but based outside Reading rather than in the town centre.

[zag]

Yes, that is part of it. It is this site here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.46044 ... a=!3m1!1e3

As you can see, the centre of the site is occupied by some pretty heavyweight switching gear.

thanks, updated first post with an image

[spectrum64]

I notice when looking at that and nearby there are 4 large transformers down the side access nearer the river

Guess they won't be moving soon either

I think the transformers and switchgear are staying put as the line of the bridge continues to the right hand side for the footpath to follow and then bend left towards the back of the station. I imagine this is why the bridge was built at an angle rather than being built directly in line with the back of the station.

Here are some pictures of the power station chimney being demolished on the site in 1970 with a fairly casual attitude to heath and safety.

https://www.getreading.co.uk/lifestyle/ ... rn-6939036

[spectrum64]

Today there is a tripod drilling for soil samples. The workers were wearing white disposable overalls so it may be that they are checking for pollutants. It would be no surprise if there is lots of asbestos left over from when the power station was demolished.

[Bob deBilda]

The older type of transformer oil (polychlorinated biphenyls) is pretty toxic too and not biodegradable. I'm sure there's plenty there.

Regards
Bob

[OLDMAN]

Mention of PCB reminds me of some stupidity from about 30ysr back

Where I worked there was an old transformer the company owned, that needed to be disposed of so a building could be extended – and it was full of PCB

The then maintenance guy, who was a bit cocky and ‘knew it all’, reckoned his guys could manually empty it and wash it out one weekend to save money

One of them looked up about PCB’s and told him to B’Off as not going near it

His ‘plans’ for it basically broke every H&S rule going………….


Eventually a specialist company came in, pumped it empty / clean with some fancy equipment, and the site was then decontaminated by them and all made safe / certified as such!

All - wearing high-tech chemical protection suits whilst doing it


The scrap guys would only take the transformer away once they saw the H&S certificate issued by the chemical cleaning company, plus extra cover / info from the fire brigade

[zag]

Possibly doing an environmental survey before planning permission application is put in?

[Jude]

Could it be the same crew who have been drilling up and down the river for potential flood relief work?

[spectrum64]

Could it be the same crew who have been drilling up and down the river for potential flood relief work?

I don't think so as they are dressed in what look like disposable boilersuits and there are a couple of large portacabins. I think it's a contamination survey as zag suggests and there's probably plenty there to deal with!

[Stargazer]

Forbury Place is a company head office style office block, rather than a workshop or operations base. If you look at the Google maps image I posted earlier, you certainly get the impression that the Vastern Road was more than just offices. Which begs the question, which I suspect Windrush was getting at, of where have the non-head-office functions gone.

The operations people are based outside Reading - on the couple of occasions when I have had to arrange installation of an electricity supply I've dealt with their engineering team, who are based in Theale.