The leader of Reading Borough Council has spoken about his priorities for the coming municipal year, which include delivering on big projects, supporting households and increasing recycling.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) spoke with Jason Brock (Labour, Southcote), the leader of the council following the local election and before the beginning of the 2023-2024 municipal year, which runs until April.

Although there are no major policy changes planned yet, cllr Brock spoke about the need for the council to support people amid the cost of living crisis and floated the possibility of introducing plastic film recycling and curbside glass recycling when speaking with the LDRS on Monday, May 15.

He said: “There’s an awful lot to be getting on with, I’m really looking forward to the challenge.

“I’m very proud of all we’ve done over the past few years.

“There’s lots of big infrastructure development, and of course, some of those projects need to be finished off. We’ve got the delivery of Rivermead Leisure Centre, which begins its phased opening just in a couple of months now, with the Green Park Station we’re looking forward to the opening of that later this month, and there are lots of other bits and pieces across the borough.

“But we know that there’s a very important piece of work to be done around helping our residents with the cost of living crisis, which has not abated at all, indeed, the intensity of it has only become greater.

“So we’ll be looking in short order to bring forward plans for using Household Support Fund monies and to look at how we can continue to work best with the voluntary and community sector across the town to provide our residents with support when they need it.”

The council received  £2,261,298 from the Household Support Fund for 2023/24.

But cllr Brock expressed frustration over government requirements the council has had to meet to achieve that funding.

He said: “So we receive a household support funding allocation, the government have increasingly over times, and this is something that goes back a few years, but they’ve increasingly put more and more onerous requirements around it, which can be a bit frustrating.

“However, I’m of the view that councillors up and down the country will best know how to use that funding for the benefit of their own local areas.

“We know our patches better than central government does and we would always want the maximum flexibility with those kinds of grants.

“And we’ll have to devise a scheme that works best for our residents here in Reading, just as I’m sure colleagues and other councils embarks year and beyond will be looking to develop schemes that work best for their residents.”

Cllr Brock was also asked whether the administration will be introducing any new policies this year, giving examples such as the introduction of free bulky waste collections introduced in May 2022, and the acquisition of an ultra-narrow bin lorry which hit Reading streets this April.

READ MORE: Solution for Reading streets plagued by missed bin collections arrived at

He replied: “Clearly with things like the free bulky waste collections we’re going to look at how it works, see how we can perhaps improve it and make it a little bit better, a little bit easier to access.

“With the new narrow waste bin lorries, it’s the same kind of thing, we want to see that in service to deal with some of those issues that we have had in the past.

“But I think we’re certainly looking very proactively at what we might be able to do in terms of the collection of plastic film, through our recycling stream.

“You can recycle a great many things in your red bin, but one of the things you can’t at the moment is plastic film.

“So we’re having a look around the possibility of trialling something around that to make life even easier for residents.

“We’re looking at glass collection at the curbside.

“At the moment we have bottle banks, but me and my colleagues are very keen to introduce curbside collection as soon as possible, we just need the government to finalise their regulations around that so that we can get it over the line.

“Beyond that, we are always looking at how we can better deliver services.”

Both the Green Party and the Conservative Party had the introduction of curbside glass recycling collection in their manifestos.

However, the council’s Labour administration has blamed delays in introducing curbside collections on a lack of secondary legislation to complement the Environment Act that was passed in 2021.

READ MORE: Reading push for kerbside glass collections as council blames Government for delays

Cllr Brock is also looking forward to new projects such as transforming the Minster Quarter.

He said: “The really big things on the horizon, in terms of service delivery, are things like the new theatre at the hexagon, the so-called hex box, providing a new community space.

“And in this very building a new Central Library delivered here on Bridge Street, turning our civic offices into a genuine Civic Centre at the heart for the community, offering all of the things that libraries do, which goes far beyond the provision of book loans.”

The planned incorporation of the central library into the civic offices was announced in January after the council received £19.1 million in government levelling up funding.

READ MORE: Reading wins £19.1 million from government to revitalise Hexagon and new library

Of that funding, approximately £12 million will be invested in upgrading The Hexagon and £8 million into a new library.

However, it is still unclear what will happen to the existing library building.

When pressed on what will happen with the building, cllr Brock said: “It’s a bit premature for me to speculate around that now.

“We’ll bring forward plans around that in due course.”

Finally, cllr Brock expressed a desire to push ahead with the redevelopment of the Minster Quarter, which would involve upgrades to The Hexagon and 618 flats.

A bidding process to select a developer to deliver the project began last summer but has not concluded yet.

Cllr Brock explained: “We’re still in that process. So we’ve gone out to tender we’ve had interest back and we’re assessing the bids.

“We want the best possible partner to deliver on that site because you only get to deliver on it once.

“So we want something that’s going to deliver homes, but it’s also going to deliver excellent public realm, it’s got to be in compliance with our environmental agenda.

“And it needs to deliver some new employment opportunities there as well and really enhance the setting of things like the Hexagon and the Minster to create a whole new regenerated area in our town centre.”