Reading West MP Martin Salter who was formerly Chair of Reading Borough Council’s Leisure Committee has questioned plans put forward by Reading Borough Council Conservative Group to establish “a three week giant camp site in the middle of the town” during the 2012 Olympic Games. Reading Borough Council Conservatives have announced plans to team up with the Reading Rock Festival promoters to provide large screens for fans to watch the games. The Tories have also claimed that “Reading is very well located as a base for people wanting to go to see the sailing competitions on the south coast at Weymouth”.

Mr Salter said:-

“Whilst I am all in favour of Reading playing its full part in the Olympic celebrations we need to think carefully about organising a three week giant camp site in the middle of the town. We do a pretty good job when it comes to Womad and the Rock Festival but these events only take place over a long weekend. Even so, when they do Reading’s Rivermead Leisure Centre and golf driving range is put out of action. It would be somewhat ironic if the Olympic period meant less sporting opportunities for the people of Reading not more. It is also a pretty hypocritical for the Tories to start praising the Reading Rock Festival when they were the party who banned it from the town when they last controlled the council back in the 1980s”.

He added:-

“I also think Councillor Cumpsty needs a crash course in map reading if he really thinks that the 2 hour drive to Weymouth from Reading constitutes “a well located base!”. I am not saying that this idea lacks merit it just needs thinking through sensibly and not being the subject of a pre-election council campaign announcement by a Tory group who, in the past have opposed almost all that is now good about Reading”.

Mr Salter has also demanded that the Council should consult fully with pubs and other local businesses who could well lose valuable trade if customers were lured away to a giant camp site rather than patronising local premises.

Mr Salter said:-

“Everybody knows that the football and rugby World Cups and the Olympic Games offer a tremendous opportunity to provide a boost to the pub trade. Our pubs are having a tough enough time as it is without some ill thought out Tory plan denying them of much needed revenue”.