LAUGHS for COPPOUT !

[Albion Rob]

Is it true that Berkshire doesn't actually exist as a county any more because people of Berkshire didn't like the fact that Slough was part of it so consequently there are just a load of unitary authorities in what used to be Berkshire?

 

[Happy Seagull]

COPPELL

READING

 

[Yorkie]

Ali has just demonstrated what the environment in Reading is really like

 

[Yorkie]

Oh Ali, you are so easy to wind up today (ps should find out this week if we can put you up 29th/30th Nov)

 

[Wilts]

Is it true that Berkshire doesn't actually exist as a county any more because people of Berkshire didn't like the fact that Slough was part of it so consequently there are just a load of unitary authorities in what used to be Berkshire?

Sort of. History lesson for those interested (includes you Albion Rob, as you asked!)

Berkshire is indeed the Royal County. Because there are Kings and Queens buried in Reading and Windsor. The history of the area is superb. Also the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Royal Ascot, Royal Henley Regatta (now Oxon) etc etc...

Slough got moved to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire, and Langley got moved from Greater London to Berkshire. Heathrow becomes part of Berkshire too as well as Surrey. Reading then leaves Berkshire (strange) and becomes a County Borough on its own. A bit like Bristol.

Then Wokingham and Bracknell Forest become UA's, and the whole County Council is abolished. Parts of Reading go into Wokingham UA to share out the people. Reading County Borough Council can't handle 250,000+ people so they share it out. Hence when we try to get City Status, the government will only give it to one borough unless you join forces with another (like Brighton AND Hove for example). Which we didn't. So we remain.

There are too many people in a small (dense) area for boundaries to be easily drawn for a county. Within 15 miles of me (when in East Wokingham), I could be in Greater London, Oxon, Hampshire, Surrey, and Buckinghamshire. Interesting, eh? (Nope, says the audience).

P.S. The bit about Slough isn't completely untrue. People in Maidenhead are petitioning to get rid of SL postcodes and make it RG52-5. Nobody wants to be associated with bloody Slgh

 

[Albion Rob]

Cheers Wilts, I had heard that Slough was much maligned in a Public Affairs class, but we didn't go into it in detail. Must be a nightmare sussing out who to complain to whenever something crops up - but then again councils tend to do f*** all anyway!

 

[Wilts]

councils tend to do f*** all anyway!

Absolutely spot on.

Reading BC has plenty of people writing in and saying how the place should be a city and give it loads of facts to back it up. The bookies make it favourite and it can't lose. Then upon the day that Reading BC have to provide a document "selling" the place, they show loads of pictures of the Oracle and the business parks, neglect all the history and the Cathedral (now just called the "Abbey Ruins") and basically put together a shoddy document saying "its well good, innit?". Hence, bloody Preston wins. The sound of 250,000 hands slapping foreheads rings out throughout town.

And then there's loads of shootings, and so they think "lets put up loads of plans to build another 10 tower blocks, so that we can basically spread them out over a wide area rather than have them shooting each other on the own doorsteps". Put Wokingham and Reading UA together and we're sorted, but that'd just be too difficult for 'em, wouldn't it?

Bunch of s, the lot of 'em. Hence I'm staying in Bournemouth for a while until the place becomes safer and cleaner.

I can't believe you're really interested in this stuff, Rob!

 

[Albion Rob]

Well, the first bit was ok!

Seriously though, I have been to Reading a couple of times for non-football days (girlfriend was at uni in Oxford) and it always seemed big enough to be a city, a lot bigger than Oxfoerd I believe, but then Oxford has a lot of history.

 

[Yorkie]

We have friends who live in Finchhampstead and it is lovely there. We have stayed with them and gone shopping in Reading

 

[Yorkie]

Yes

I bought my England shirt in there at one of the sports shops

 

[NMH]

Re: Re: LAUGHS for COPPOUT !

But in the meantime feel free to laugh at the result. I can assure you that about 2% of Reading fans know your result.

I feel free, I really do !

Look;-

See ?

 

[Kenhead]

wigan 5 palace 0

 

[Exiled in Exeter]