'Laughable' Reading road name suggestions for development

Road names for a 223-home golf course development in Caversham were criticised by councillors

Road names suggested for a development have been described as "laughable".

They were being picked for nine streets on a 223-home golf course development in Caversham, Reading.

But councillors said some of the suggestions - including a tractor, a type of oil lamp, and 18th Century naval vessels - were not right for the area.

A council spokesperson said "attractive" names could be chosen when there was no suitable local suggestion.

Councillors described suggestions to name roads in landlocked Reading after 18th Century ships as "laughable"

Conservative councillor Stephen Goss criticised the process by which names were chosen, saying councillors should be able to have more input.

He said: "The current list of 'acceptable' names is laughable. Literally - at the previous planning meeting I got a laugh from going through and explaining several of them.

"Why landlocked Reading should be naming streets after ships that were captured by the Spanish and French or were sunk is beyond me."

Suggestions for the new roads included using ship names such as Garland, Harwich, Hope and Humber.

The names that were chosen include Fox Crescent, for a young boy who passed away in 2022, Putting Green, and James Braid, after the original designer of the golf course.

A council spokesperson said street names were generally "suggested by developers or taken from an approved list"

A spokesperson for Reading Borough Council said: "It is usual to attempt to name streets after local historical connections, such as activity, occupancy or landscape, but in situations where there is no suitable local name, an attractive name can be chosen.

"Where there are multiple new streets, they may be linked to a theme, which is why the naval vessels appear on the approved names list."

The naming of the nine streets should have been agreed last month, but were approved in private by members of the council's planning committee.

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