Reading’s Christmas lights come on from Saturday 21 November. The centrepiece is a dazzling natural Christmas tree in Broad Street. Across the town centre there are over 400,000 twinkling lights, making Reading one of the largest displays in the south east.

The lead up to Christmas officially begins in Reading this weekend as the lights are switched on around the town.

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Important Notice Reading, like the rest of England, is currently operating under new national COVID-related restrictions from 5 November – 2 December. This means that people MUST:-

• Stay at home, except for specific purposes.
• Avoid meeting people you do not live with, except for specific purposes.
• Close certain businesses and venues

These restrictions mean that it is not possible to visit Reading for the time being. We hope to be able to welcome you in December and throughout 2021. Please enjoy the information on these pages to help you plan a future visit and check back regularly to see if the situation has changed.

Some of your happiest memories when I was a child were at family or school fireworks displays. Freezing cold, eating jacket potatoes, sparklers in hands and ‘oo-ing’ and ‘ah-ing’ over the pretty explosions which lit up the inky, night sky.

Whether you called it Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night, November 5 was one of the few times each year we got together with family and friends.

Now you are older, with a rescue dog, cat or a child who has always been sensitive to loud noises, you are less keen on the night.

Especially as it no longer lasts just one evening but fireworks can generally be heard from now until January. But an outright ban, or even allowing them only at official events is nonsense.

At the moment, thosands of people have signed a petition to ban fireworks in public – which means the government will have to respond.

I won’t call these people fun police or killjoys as some people have, I can see why they want to put restrictions on fireworks displays.

As they say themselves, they ’cause alarm, distress and anxiety to many people and animals’.

What is needed instead though is better education on the danger of fireworks, tougher penalties for those misusing them and police cracking down on those who flout the rules, particularly those who give/sell them to under 18s.

If organising a garden display, just be a considerate human being.

Make sure your neighbours are aware, perhaps even invite them over.

It’s easy to let people know – most of us are on social media and there are plenty of local noticeboards you can post on to let people know if you plan to let fireworks off for a lengthy amount of time.

If not, knock a few doors, particularly if you have elderly neighbours and those with children or pets.

Choose low noise or quiet fireworks (yes, they do exist) as well as follow safety advice and take precautions before setting them off.

And don’t be a git and let them off past 11pm.

If we all followed these general rules it would probably help a lot.

Banning things rarely has the desired effect and will only mean that a ‘black market’ will open up which will make it even more dangerous and fireworks more likely to fall into the hands of youngsters and those who would act irresponsibly.

People point to the environmental damage caused by fireworks – perhaps then a green tax should be introduced to pay towards offsetting the damage caused?

And there are plenty of things which are more dangerous and/or cause more environmental damage than fireworks such as cars, dairy farming – should we also ban them?

We all have to live with things which annoy or upset us but we can’t go around and ban everything that upsets someone.

The nine-car British Rail Class 345 is a type of electric multiple unit passenger train built by Bombardier Transportation for use on Crossrail & currently used between Reading to London Paddington have been removed from traffic due to a software problem, therefore all TfL Rail ‘345s’ in traffic are currently running as seven-car sets.

Bombardier built the trains at Derby Litchurch Lane. Spokesman Will Tanner told RAIL: “A defect has been discovered that affects the signalling system on some of our Class 345s operating TfL Rail services to and from London Paddington. As a precaution, the nine-car units have been temporarily withdrawn from passenger service while we work to resolve the problem.

“All other Class 345s operating TfL Rail services to and from London Paddington and London Liverpool Street continue to operate as normal. I can’t give you a date when we will be able to return to nine-car operation but will do as soon as I can.”

No date has been given for the return to traffic of nine-car Class 345s on TfL Rail trains between London Paddington and Reading.