"Richard J." wrote in message
...

"Ben Nunn" wrote in message
...

For me, people who live in outlying areas who's big salary and
house are dependent upon a rapid commute into the City of London,
but don't want to live in Greater London because it's somehow
vulgar/common are hypocrites of the worst kind.

Well said, Ben!

Personally, having been brought up in Orpington and Bromley in the 1940's
and '50's, I viewed my parents' insistence that we were in Kent as absurd.
Kent was where you went for a day out. We were quite clearly part of the
Greater London conurbation, as a quick glance at an Ordnance Survey map
made
clear even then. To draw boundaries through the middle of suburbs and
pretend one side is London and the other is Kent doesn't make any sense
except for historical studies.

At least London got it roughly right in 1965. Reading is still absurdly
constrained by its 19th Century boundaries, with its eastern and western
suburbs changing at arbitrary points into Wokingham and West Berkshire.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)


Having lived in Lower Earley in Wokingham DC (but Reading Post Town) I
totally agree. Earley and Woodley have all their natural links with Reading
(most obviously being served by Reading Buses). But there is an arbitrary
line that zig-zags down alley ways and across gardens, and right across the
Reading University campus. The same went for friends who lived in Calcot in
West Berkshire (but which is also clearly part of Reading). What has
happened is that the towns expansion has flooded over the boundary, and it
no longer has any correlation to the facts on the ground.

The absurdity of the situation was highlighted at my fathers diploma
ceremony recently when dignitaries from both Wokingham and Reading councils
attended because the boundary cuts the campus in two!

The Reading conurbation is a prime case for a boundary review. They should
have done it when the unitary authorities were set up, but I guess it would
have affected the viability of Wokingham as a stand-alone unit.

Colin