Local Plan

1) This link takes you to the main page covering the Local Plan 98-2006

2) A little way down the Local Plan page you will find a long list of pdf files which relate to each chapter of the Plan.

If you click on the link for any of these it will bring up that chapter.

Each chapter covers one topic and describes the objectives and , in some cases detailed plans, that the council has for that topic and lists the policies that they have established for the topic - each policy begins with 2-3 letters and then a sequential number eg EMP1 for Employment, HSG 1 for housing etc. You will see these scattered through all the documents and maps.

There are also Key policies that go accross the board numbered KEY1 etc.

You can print the chapter by clicking the printer icon.

You can save it by clicking the little disk icon (1st one on the left hand side immediately above the document space).

You can search it (before or after you have saved it) by clicking on the binoculars icon - it will ask you what word(s) you are looking for and it will find all those in the chapter that you have open. So you could open Chapter 10 and put in Bugs Bottom into the search and it will find two references to Bugs Bottom in there.

3) At the top of this main page you will find a link to the "View the Reading Borough Plan Map".

This shows you a map of Reading with rectangles marked on it.

Click a rectangle and it will show you a more detailed map with areas outlined.

Click on an outlined area and it will give you a list of the policies or other notes relating to that area. Some of these notes have useful information in them and and some just seem to identify the area but they always have a ref number in them. eg if you click on the map that covers Mapledurham Playing Fields and then actually click on that area, it displays Policy LEI4, so you can then go and look up policy LEI4 - LEI means a Leisure related Policy

4) Another alternative is to use the Government Planning Portal on which to view the Reading Plan. Click here to go to the plan on the portal site.

It works in much the same way as the pdf version except I can't find an easy way of searching. If you click on Topic Area on left hand side it will list the different sections - just click on one and read what it says.

5) On the left hand side below the list of the sections of the plan is a link which says Proposals Map. If you click on that it will bring up a new window which allows you to view the maps that Jennifer had only in a more sophisticated (and therefore more complicated!) way.

You can zoom in on the map by clicking the sign with a + sign in on the top left hand side and then clicking a point on the map - it will enlarge centred around where you click it. Click it again and it will enlarge again and so on. Clicking the sign with a - in it has the reverse effect.

If you click the sign with a hand and then click and drag the pointer on the map, it will move the map in the way you have dragged it - try it and you will see what happens.

Now you are probably wondering why there is no info on the map - on the left hand side there is another box which has a long list of different types of land assignments (Open spaces, shopping areas etc ). Before you do anything with these, there is a link at the bottom Enlarge Map - click this to start with - it is easier to see everything.

Now lets suppose you want to see Open Spaces. Click on the box next to Open Spaces and the Refresh Map and the map will show the areas deemed open spaces. If you then change the pointer to be Show Policies at Point and then click on one of the areas highlighted on the map, it will list the policies that relate to that area. I think if you click on one of the policies, it should bring up that section of the Plan but this didn't seem to work - but you can refer to that using the way I described in 2 above.

You can then look at a different topic on the map by unclicking the box and clicking on a differnt one - or clicking several at once. Remember to Refresh Map each time you change the selection.

All this seems very complicated but once you get the hand of it its not too bad - I think using the combination of the map on the portal and the pdf documents to search you should be able to see what the current plan has in it.