Borough of Wokingham

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Borough of Wokingham
Wokingham UK locator map.svg
Shown within Berkshire
Coordinates: 51°24′37″N0°50′36″W / 51.4102°N 0.8432°W / 51.4102; -0.8432
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
Region South East England
Ceremonial county Berkshire
Status Unitary authority
Incorporated1 April 1974
Admin HQ Wokingham
Government
  TypeUnitary authority
  Body Wokingham Borough Council
  LeadershipLeader & Cabinet
   MPs John Redwood (C)
Theresa May (C)
Matt Rodda (L)
James Sunderland (C)
Area
  Total69.10 sq mi (178.98 km2)
  Rank152nd (of 296)
Population
 (2021)
  Total177,500
  Rank116th (of 296)
  Density2,570/sq mi (992/km2)
  Ethnicity
88.4% White (83.6% White British)
7.5% Asian
2.1% Black British
2% Mixed Race
Time zone UTC0 (GMT)
  Summer (DST) UTC+1 (BST)
ONS code 00MF (ONS) E06000041 (GSS)
OS grid reference SU805685
Website www.wokingham.gov.uk

The Borough of Wokingham is a local government district with borough status in Berkshire, England. It is named after its main town, Wokingham. Other places in the district include Arborfield, Barkham, Charvil, Earley, Finchampstead, Hurst, Sonning, Remenham, Ruscombe, Shinfield, Twyford, Wargrave, Three Mile Cross, Winnersh, Spencers Wood and Woodley. The population of Wokingham is 177,500 according to 2021 census. [1]

Contents

History

The district was formed on 1 April 1974 as Wokingham District, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Wokingham and Wokingham Rural District. It is governed by Wokingham Borough Council (formerly Wokingham District Council), which has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1998, following the abolition of Berkshire County Council under the Banham Review. The district was granted borough status in 2007, following a petition to the Queen. [2]

Government

The local authority is Wokingham Borough Council. It is a unitary authority, being a district council (but designated a borough council) also exercising the functions of a county council. [3]

Education

State-funded schools in the Borough of Wokingham include nine secondary schools, two special schools and numerous primary schools. There are also a number of private schools.[ citation needed ]

Bracknell and Wokingham College is the main further and adult education provider for the borough, just outside the borough its headquarters is in Bracknell. The Borough's closest higher education provider is the main Whiteknights Park campus of the University of Reading immediately north-west,[ citation needed ] most of which in fact falls within the Wokingham Borough boundary.

Geography

Elevations range between 30 and 70 metres above sea level except higher in about 5% of the borough. The highest is an escarpment containing parts of the rural and wooded northern area, the hinterland of three Thames-side villages, facing the 30-mile long Chilterns AONB, west and north. [4] A geological part of that range of hills, Bowsey Hill reaches 137m, in Wargrave civil parish, 1 mile (1.6 km) from the river. [5]

Approximately a right-angled triangle, the borough is long north to south. It uses as its longest edge the course of the Loddon and Thames along its north-west, with a similarly salient-containing eastern boundary and an almost straight southern boundary. Clockwise the boundaries are approximately 10, 8 and 5 miles on a direct path from point to point. The southern boundary is approximately the Roman road from London to Bath through a highly coniferous Swinley Forest which sits in geology on the naturally acidic, Bagshot Formation.[ citation needed ]

The town in the district is Wokingham. The villages are Arborfield, Barkham, Charvil, Earley, Finchampstead, Hurst, Sonning, Remenham, Ruscombe, Shinfield, Twyford, Wargrave, Three Mile Cross, Winnersh, Spencers Wood and Woodley. Two villages have a wide range of small retail and visitor facilities: Wargrave and Twyford. In major employment areas of trading and manufacturing Winnersh and Finchampstead are prominent. The village of Crowthorne is shared between Wokingham and the neighbouring borough of Bracknell Forest.[ citation needed ]

Home ownership

The borough has the highest proportion of home ownership of the six local authorities in Berkshire: combining the social (housing association and local authority provided) and private (private landlord) rented sectors, Slough's returns recorded in 2011 that its rented sector comprised 46% of its housing, whereas 18% of Wokingham's residents rented their homes.[ citation needed ]

Excluding lower-tier districts, Central Government has classified Wokingham as the least needy Local Authority. Government funding is about £120 per head per year. This is the lowest among the combined category of county councils and unitary authorities, the basis on which it is overall assessed, and compares with over £1000 per head in others such as the London Borough of Hackney. [6]

Tenure in Berkshire compared [7]
Unitary AuthorityOwnedOwned with a loanSocially rentedPrivately rentedOther
Wokingham36%45%7%11%1%
Bracknell Forest25%44%17%13%1%
Reading23%33%17%27%1%
Slough19%34%21%25%1%
West Berkshire32%39%14%14%2%
Windsor and Maidenhead33%36%13%16%2%

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Wokingham.

Individuals

[8]

Military Units

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earley</span> Human settlement in England

Earley is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Along with the neighbouring town of Woodley, the Office for National Statistics places Earley within the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area; for the purposes of local government it falls within the Borough of Wokingham, outside the area of Reading Borough Council. Its name is sometimes spelt Erleigh or Erlegh and consists of a number of smaller areas, including Maiden Erlegh and Lower Earley, and lies some 3 miles (5 km) south and east of the centre of Reading, and some 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Wokingham. It had a population of 32,036 at the 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Loddon</span> River in southern England

The River Loddon is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises at Basingstoke in Hampshire and flows northwards for 28 miles (45 km) to meet the Thames at Wargrave in Berkshire. Together, the Loddon and its tributaries drain an area of 400 square miles (1,036 km2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twyford, Berkshire</span> Human settlement in England

Twyford is a large village and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. It had a population of 6,618 in the 2011 Census. It is in the Thames Valley and on the A4 between Reading and Maidenhead, close to Henley-on-Thames and Wokingham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurst, Berkshire</span> Village in England

Hurst is a village in the civil parish of St Nicholas Hurst in the English county of Berkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barkham</span> Human settlement in England

Barkham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England, located around 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the town of Wokingham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reading East (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1983 onwards

Reading East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Matt Rodda, of the Labour Party. The seat is one of two Labour seats from a total of eight seats in Berkshire.

Wokingham Rural District was a rural district in the county of Berkshire, England. It was created in 1894. It was named after and administered from Wokingham, though this was a separate municipal borough.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finchampstead</span> Human settlement in England

Finchampstead is a village and civil parish in the Wokingham Borough in the shire of Berkshire, England. Its northern extremity is 2 miles (3 km) south of Wokingham, 5 miles (8 km) west of Bracknell, 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Reading, and 34 miles (55 km) west of Central London. It is an affluent area, with the village ranking as Britain's 31st wealthiest. It has a high standard of living and is rated as one of the most desirable places to live in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wokingham (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom 1885-1918 and from 1950 onwards

Wokingham is a constituency in Berkshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 1987 by John Redwood, a Conservative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maidenhead (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1997 onwards

Maidenhead is a constituency in Berkshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Since its creation at the 1997 general election, the seat has been held by Conservative Member of Parliament Theresa May, who served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016 and as Prime Minister from 2016 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reading South (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom 1950-1955 and 1974-1983

Reading South was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency covered an area in and around the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charvil</span> Human settlement in England

Charvil is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The village is 3 miles (5 km) east of the centre of Reading on the A4 road to Maidenhead, between Sonning and Twyford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 3,042. The area was mostly farmland until the 1950s, since which time the population has increased significantly. Charvil is bisected by the new A4 Bath Road.

Wokingham Borough Council is the local authority for the Borough of Wokingham, a unitary authority in Berkshire, England. Until 1 April 1998 it was a non-metropolitan district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Earley</span> Settlement in England

Lower Earley is the southern portion of Earley civil parish and a large suburb of Reading, within the English county of Berkshire. It forms part of a large suburban conurbation of over 85,000 inhabitants adjoining east and south-east Reading. Lower Earley and Earley have a combined population of around 32,000 and Lower Earley itself has developed since the late 1970s. By the mid 1980s it was considered to be the largest private housing development in the United Kingdom. Lower Earley forms a major part of Wokingham Borough. In 2014, the RG6 postcode area was rated one of the most desirable postcode areas to live in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinfield</span> Human settlement in England

Shinfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, just south of Reading. It contains 4,313 acres (17.45 km2) and is administered by the unitary authority of Wokingham District. Shinfield Park is the northern part of the parish, becoming physically separated from Reading when the M4 motorway was constructed in 1971.

Charlton was a hundred in the English county of Berkshire. Like all hundreds, although never abolished, it effectively ceased to function after 1886.

References

  1. "Berkshire Observatory – Wokingham – Population & Demographics". wokingham.berkshireobservatory.co.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  2. "Annual Monitoring Report December 2007 [ permanent dead link ]", p. 4 bottom, Wokingham Borough Council
  3. Berkshire (Structural Change) Order 1996 (SI 1996/1879), art.3
  4. "The Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - explore - enjoy. Retrieved 2015-01-28". Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  5. Geograph.org.uk map retrieved 2015-01-28
  6. More or Less, Radio 4 programme. Date needed.
  7. "Office for National Statistics". Archived from the original on 11 February 2003. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  8. "Freedom of the Borough for Bowyer and Smalley · Wokingham's Virtual Museum".
  9. Vashisht, Rahul (15 June 2015). "REME soldiers march through Wokingham for the last time".