Reading residents to meet with Ikea over traffic concerns

Residents near a proposed Ikea site in Reading will be meeting with the furniture giant's planners later to discuss concerns over extra traffic.

The site at Pincents Lane Retail Park is near the A4 and M4 junction 12, which residents say would be congested by the Swedish store's customers.

Ikea said the store would provide 400 jobs and it pledged to invest £5m in road improvements.

At the meeting residents will be able to view plans on exhibition boards.

Chairman of Holybrook Parish Council Mary Bedwell, who represents the area and its 5,500 residents, said: "Ikea are a very successful company and will attract a lot of people.

"It will transform a derelict site which has been an eyesore for years, but our residents are concerned that we will be stuck on the A4, and junction 12 is very busy already."

An Ikea spokesman said the firm had already made a number of changes to the plans to address residents' concerns, including extra investment in the road layout and an improvement to the landscape, including 63 new trees and a wild flower grassland.