Town centre clean up is a team exercise

9th February 2024

Reading BID, in partnership with Reading Borough Council, has been tidying up Reading town centre to ensure that it remains an attractive place in which to work and visit.

Working with the Council’s Highways team, Reading BID identified a number of areas that needed improvement from street surfaces to litter and rubbish collection.  With around 2.5 million visits every month, there is always considerable wear and tear on the town centre infrastructure as well as the need for Reading to compete as a premier shopping, dining and office location. This project, led by Reading Borough Council with insights from the town centre-based Reading BID, identified areas that needed refreshing or have been impacted negatively by anti-social behaviour. 

Work started in January and has so far involved:

• Replacing 109 m2 of block paving (RBC Highways)
• Installing 21 tree pits with 62 m2 of bonded rubber mulch (RBC Highways)
• A programme of replacing town centre bins (RBC Cleansing)
• Graffiti removal (RBC Cleansing)
• Group litter picking with staff from Cross Country Trains, Forbury Works, Guardian Financial Services, Dog House, Grosvenor Casinos, Education Development Trust, Reading BID and Reading Borough Council.

This follows a range of lighting upgrades in the town centre last year along well used routes that residents felt were unsafe and too dimly lit, through the Community Safety Partnership’s Safer Streets funding.

Alexa Volker, Reading BIDs Manager, said: “First impressions of our town centre are vital to attracting visitors to come and spend their hard-earned money in our shops, restaurants and bars. The quality of our street furniture, paving and the cleanliness of our streets makes a big difference to how Reading is perceived and with the move to more hybrid working, we also need to make sure we properly serve the interests of those people who come into their offices in Reading town centre.

“Reading BID would like to thank Reading Borough Council for its proactive approach to ensuring our town centre is an attractive place. We have a town centre to be proud of and we need to keep investing to make sure it remains that way.”

Karen Rowland, Lead Councillor for Environmental Services and Community Safety, said: “Reading town centre belongs to all of Reading’s residents and is a very popular place for both our residents and visitors with its excellent shopping, leisure and dining facilities in a lively setting. It is important that everyone who enjoys our town centre experiences an engaging and attractive environment. That means keeping the area as clean and attractive as possible. I’m pleased that a good deal of work has taken place in the last month in replacing paving and bins, planting new trees and removing graffiti. It has also been encouraging to see local businesses take a real hands-on interest in getting involved in a town centre litter pick.

“In a busy town centre the work is never done, and there are many agencies that all have their role in keeping the town centre clean, safe and vibrant. There is also more to come with new benches, paving and ongoing work around cleansing. We will continue to work hard to maintain and improve our vibrant town centre, including working with our BID to bring forward further improvements and investment in the coming months and years. We look forward to welcoming both visitors and residents back to the town centre to enjoy a cleaner Reading. We hope to see you soon!”