After a bit of investigation, it looks as though the phone number for reporting potholes is 0800 626540 (see http://www.reading.gov.uk/a-to-z/p/potholes/). Alternatively you can go through the FixMyStreet website, http://www.fixmystreet.com/, which will both publish the report for all to see and pass it on to the borough council. Interestingly they already have a report for Rotherfield Way from back in March this year: http://www.fixmystreet.com/report/239879.

They keep a log of holes and when reported.

Emmer Green is a wonderful school and we are very grateful to have benefited from the extra class being provided last year. Sadly, it just doesn’t feel like the current infrastucture can cope with the increasing volume.

Avril Wilson is the director of educaton, social services and housing at the council. Po box 2624, Reading, RG1 7WB.

Or you can log a complain via the council website’s communication form.

The contact on the letter parents received from the school is myles.milner@reading.gov.uk direct dial is 0118 973 2904.

You can also voice your concerns to the local media, such as the Evening Post.

Interestingly, I understand back in the 70s/80s that is exactly what happened as the catchments were different. An old lady who lives in Chazey Road, said her children went to Micklands. If you lived in Caversham Heights that is where you went and the council bussed all the children over.

It will definitely get worse, especially as the council are saying there will be an intake peak in 2014. At the recent Council session they said they would also push funding out of county to schools just over the border (e.g. to Oxfordshire), to help them take more children (the Reading overspill). A very naive idea in reality. Sonning Common Primary for example, has for a long time been the overspill school for Cav Primary, Emmer Green children who didn’t get in and whose parents didn’t want them to go to Micklands or Thameside. That will be stopping soon as a new development is going up on Sonning Common soon, and potentially all the catchment places will go locally. What happens to the overspill then?

I feel the Council is burying its head in the sand and hoping the problem will go await. In reality I expect it will get worst.

A few years ago they were talking about bussing children from Caversham Height/Emmer Green to Micklands – not really what a 4 year old needs when starting school.

More family homes in the area will clearly lead to a greater demand for school places.

I live in the middle of Cav Primary catchment and we didn’t get a place for our children, so we go out of catchment (to Sonning Common). If the council looked long term at stopping the catchment scramble that currently goes on in Caversham this wouldn’t be an issue.

Some of that goes back to the days when my kids were very small: some shopping trips could be very challenging, but the staff at Waitrose were so helpful they made shopping there a pleasure. Some of it is that there is good staff retention so familiar faces provide a sense of continuity. Also Caversham Waitrose is very much a place where one does tend to bump into local people – my wife is what I called in the post ‘old Caversham’ and shopping with her there can be a very long process (even community can have its downside).

The green disks are a nice idea, I think, but to me a bit … corporate. They reflect well on Waitrose as a whole, but are not really why I associate Caversham Waitrose with a sense of local community. That is much more about people, I think.

What about you, do you like those disks? Where, or what, in Caversham (or Emmer Green, etc) do you find promotes a sense of community?