The Guardian looks at Reading
Reading is the latest town to get The Guardian’s “Let’s move to…” treatment. A new location is examined every Saturday as part of the paper’s Money section, with Reading featured in today’s edition.
So what did Tom Dyckhoff say?
Fortunately, the “What’s going for it” bit is four times the size of “The case against”. On the positive side, the abbey grounds are mentioned (fortunately it wasn’t mentioned that these have been temporarily closed off), the countryside (not technically Reading, but nevermind) gets a thumbs up, as do John Lewis and Waitrose (eh?).
Against, it’s the usual story. ”Pig ugly”. Harsh. There are far uglier towns than Reading (I shall not name them). Is the Thames Promenade ugly? Is our town’s Victorian architecture ugly? Forbury Gardens: ugly? Is Prospect Park a bit of an eyesore? There is a lot of concrete in Reading, but many other UK towns have this problem. London is not all shiny squares and pretty palaces.
“Traffic and parking both chronic”. Yes. Can’t argue with that.
“The cultural scene sags.” Ouch. That’s unfair. Reading Festival, new Heavenly Planet festival, South Street, RISC, Hexagon… are these not “cultural”? A new music festival is hardly evidence of a sagging cultural scene.
Anyway, read the report and have your say (I have).