To confirm the Minutes of the Strategic Environment, Planning and Transport Committee held on 26 June 2025.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2025 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To receive the Minutes for meetings of the Traffic Management Sub-Committee held on 11 June and 11 September 2025.

The Minutes of the Traffic Management Sub-Committee held on 11 September 2025 were received and noted.

To receive the Minutes for meetings of the:

• Joint Waste Disposal Board on 24 June and 18 September 2025.
• Reading Climate Change Partnership (RCCP) Board on 24 April and 17 July 2025.

The Minutes of the following meetings of other bodies were received and noted:

• Joint Waste Disposal Board on 18 September 2025.
• Reading Climate Change Partnership Board on 24 April 2025 and 17 July 2025.

To review the list of decisions delegated to officers by the Committee.  

The Committee received and noted the list of delegated decisions from previous meetings.

A report seeking Committee approval to conduct a public consultation on the Draft Eldon Square Conservation Area Appraisal. A short presentation will also be given by representatives from the Reading Conservation Area Advisory Committee (CAAC).

The Committee considered a report that sought approval to conduct a public consultation on the draft Eldon Square Conservation Area Appraisal during November and December 2025. The following documents were appended to the report:

• Appendix 1 - Equality Impact Assessment
• Appendix 2 - Draft Eldon Square Conservation Area Appraisal (November 2025)

The report explained that the Eldon Square Conservation Area had first been designated in 1972 under the Town & Country Planning Act 1971 (as amended) and had been the first conservation area established in Reading. In 1982 the area had been extended to include Watlington Street, Eldon Street, Victoria Street and Montague Street. The most recent full appraisal of the Eldon Square area had been completed in 2007.

The report stated that, under Section 69 of the List Buildings and Conservation Act 1990 and the National Planning Policy Framework, planning authorities had a responsibility to review their existing conservation areas and to designate any areas of special architectural or historic significance. Historic England also recommended updating conservation area appraisals every 5 to 10 years. The report explained that conservation area appraisals were a material consideration in the determination of relevant planning applications, were specifically referenced in policy EN3 of the Local Plan and provided key evidence for the preparation of planning policy.

Following a review of the Council’s approach to the town’s historic environment, the Council had supported the formation of the Reading Conservation Areas Advisory Committee (CAAC). One of the CAAC’s key concerns was the amount of time elapsed since many of the town’s conservation area appraisals had been prepared and adopted. Best practice recommended that appraisals be updated every five to ten years and several in the town had been identified as being due for renewal. It had been agreed that the CAAC would lead on reviewing conservation area appraisals, working in consultation with local communities.

The Eldon Square review was the fourth to be carried out by the CAAC, following St Peters in 2018, Castle Hill/Russell Street/Oxford Road in 2020 and Christchurch in 2024. The review had been a community-led project conducted primarily by the CAAC, with assistance from RBC planning officers and other interested local community representatives. As recommended by Historic England, the appraisal review had utilised a locally adapted version of the Oxford Character Assessment Toolkit which set out a methodology to assess the character of the landscape and build environment of the area. The appraisal document (Appendix 2) had been updated as a result of the assessment.

The report summarised the various findings and recommendations within the updated appraisal, these included recommendations to expand the boundary of the conservation area to include properties at 84 Queens Road, 77 London Road, 32 Eldon Terrace and, 46 and 48 Eldon Terrace. The report also listed various issues and vulnerabilities that had been identified during the review process and detailed the recommended measures set out within the appraisal’s Action Plan. The recommendations included:

• The expansion of the Eldon Square Conservation Area at the four locations listed above;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

A report seeking Committee approval to adopt the Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2025-30 and presenting the:

(i)             Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2020-25 Annual Report for 2024/25; and

(ii)            Reading Borough Council’s Corporate Greenhouse Gas Emissions Annual Report for 2024/25.

The Committee considered a report that sought approval to adopt the Reading Climate Emergency Strategy for the period 2025 to 2030. The report also introduced the annual performance reports for the current Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2020-25 and the Council’s Corporate Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024-25. The following documents were appended to the report:

• Appendix 1. Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2025-2030
• Appendix 2. Reading Climate Emergency Action Plan 2025-2030
• Appendix 3. The Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2020-25 - Annual Report 2024/25
• Appendix 4. Reading Borough Council Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Report 2024/25

At the invitation of the Chair, Ben Burfoot, Sustainability Manager and Dylan Parkes, Co-Chair of Reading Climate Change Partnership Board (RCCP), delivered a presentation on the work that had been carried out by the Council and the RCCP since the Council’s Climate Emergency declaration in 2019, and on the development of the updated Reading Climate Emergency Strategy for 2025-30.

The report and presentation set out the national and local policy context. At its meeting in February 2019, the Council had declared a Climate Emergency and had set a target for the borough to reduce emissions to net zero by 2030. The Council had subsequently adopted the Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2020-25 based on the net zero by 2030 ambition. At the same time the Council had adopted its own Carbon Plan for the period covering 2020 to 2025 which had included an interim target for the Council to reduce its corporate carbon emissions by 85% by 2025 on route to net zero by 2030.

The report stated that the transition to net zero would take some time to achieve and that the 2030 date should be considered as a key milestone towards achieving the ambitious net zero goal. The report explained that modelling now focused on 2040 with the ambition of achieving a close to 90% reduction against the 2005 baseline by that year, provided that national policies enabled this to happen. 

The report set out the impacts of Climate Change globally, nationally and in Reading. It stated that the summer of 2025 had been the warmest summer on record for the UK with a mean temperature of 16.1°C meanwhile, the winter of 2024/25 had been the eight wettest on record, and that eight out of the ten of the warmest and wettest winters had occurred since the turn of the century. This demonstrated the reality of global warming which drove a range of impacts, risks and costs at home and abroad including floods, heatwave, storms and wildfires. Consequently, there was an increasing need for the Council and its partners to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to plan for, as well as mitigate, the associated risks.

Reading Climate Emergency Strategy 2025 to 2030

The report introduced the new Reading Climate Emergency Strategy for the period covering 2025 to 2030 (Appendix 1) and recommended its adoption, along with the associated Action Plan (Appendix 2). Developed by the Reading Climate Change Partnership in association with ‘Dialogue Matters’, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

A report presenting the findings and recommendations of the Active Travel Task and Finish Group.

The Committee considered a report that introduced the findings and recommendations of the Active Travel Task and Finish Group, following the completion of the Group’s scrutiny exercise. The report also recommended that appropriate officers conduct a review of the Group’s recommendations and that they submit an evaluation for consideration at a subsequent meeting of the Committee.  The following documents were appended to the report:

• Appendix 1 - Terms of Reference and Membership of the Active Travel Task and Finish Group.
• Appendix 2 - Active Travel Task and Finish Scrutiny Group Report.

The report explained that a councillor-led Task and Finish Group had been established by the SEPT Committee at its meeting on 12 March 2025 (Minute 26 2024-25 refers) at which the Terms of Reference for the Group and its cross-party membership had been agreed. The purpose of the Task and Finish Group had been to scrutinise the implementation of Reading’s Active Travel strategy, a sub-strategy of the Reading Transport Strategy 2040 (the Local Transport Plan for the Borough), and to submit a report setting out its findings and recommendations back to the Committee. 

The report explained that the scrutiny exercise had been conducted in line with the Council’s scrutiny procedure rules. The Task and Finish Group had gathered evidence from Council officers, local community groups (including the Reading Cycle Campaign) and from other local authorities through various means of written correspondence, online and in-person meetings as well as other evidence gathering activities which were summarised in the report. The report stated that Council officers had provided a significant amount of information to the Task and Finish Group throughout the scrutiny process, that covered a wide range of areas that included central Government guidance and funding, the Council’s statutory duties, roles and capacities of teams within the Council, previous decisions taken by Committees and detailed information regarding specific designs of active travel schemes. The report explained that there was an opportunity to implement recommendations from the Group through the refresh of the Council’s adopted Local Cycling Walking and Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP), which would be reviewed in the context of the challenging financial circumstances faced by the Council and the need to prioritise available resources, both financial and in terms of staffing, to the most effective way in order to meet the overall objectives set out in the Reading Transport Strategy 2040.

The Active Travel Task and Finish Group’s findings and recommendations were set out in its Scrutiny Group Report, a copy of which was attached at Appendix 2. The Task and Finish Group had found that, whilst a strong commitment to active travel existed and that good progress in Reading towards modal shift had been made, the effective implementation of active travel schemes faced certain operational challenges and that there was an opportunity for local improvement to allow the Council to better meet its strategic goals. At the same time the report acknowledged the financial situation faced by the Council. It had therefore not made any recommendations for unfunded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.