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Borough of Wokingham | |
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 Shown withinBerkshire | |
| Coordinates:51°24′37″N0°50′36″W / 51.4102°N 0.8432°W /51.4102; -0.8432 | |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Constituent country | England |
| Region | South East England |
| Ceremonial county | Berkshire |
| Status | Unitary authority |
| Incorporated | 1 April 1974 |
| Admin HQ | Wokingham |
| Government | |
| • Type | Unitary authority |
| • Body | Wokingham Borough Council |
| • Leadership | Leader & Cabinet |
| Area | |
• Total | 69.10 sq mi (178.98 km2) |
| • Rank | 152nd(of 296) |
| Population (2021) | |
• Total | 177,500 |
| • Rank | 116th(of 296) |
| • Density | 2,570/sq mi (992/km2) |
| Ethnicity(2021) | |
| • Ethnic groups | |
| Religion(2021) | |
| • Religion | List
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| Time zone | UTC0 (GMT) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+1 (BST) |
| ISO 3166 | GB-WOK |
| ONS code | 00MF (ONS) E06000041 (GSS) |
| OS grid reference | SU805685 |
| Website | www |
Wokingham, or theBorough of Wokingham, is alocal government district withborough status inBerkshire, England. Since 1998its council has been aunitary authority, having taken on county-level functions whenBerkshire County Council was abolished. The borough is named after its main town,Wokingham. Other places in the district includeArborfield,Barkham,Charvil,Earley,Finchampstead,Hurst,Remenham,Ruscombe,Shinfield,Sonning,Spencers Wood,Three Mile Cross,Twyford,Wargrave,Winnersh andWoodley. Part of Crowthorne is also within the borough and forms part of the parish of Wokingham Without. The population of the borough is 177,500 according to 2021 census.[2]
The district was formed on 1 April 1974 asWokingham District, under theLocal Government Act 1972, by the merger of theMunicipal Borough of Wokingham andWokingham Rural District. It is governed byWokingham Borough Council (formerly Wokingham District Council), which has been aunitary authority since 1 April 1998, following the abolition of Berkshire County Council under theBanham Review.[3] The district was grantedborough status in 2007, following a petition to the Queen.[4]
Elevations range between 30 and 70 metres above sea level except higher in about 5% of the borough. The highest is an escarpment containing parts of the rural and wooded northern area, the hinterland of three Thames-side villages, facing the 30-mile longChilterns AONB, west and north.[5] A geological part of that range of hills, Bowsey Hill reaches 137m, in Wargrave civil parish, 1 mile (1.6 km) from the river.[6]
Approximately a right-angled triangle, the borough is long north to south. It uses as its longest edge the course of theLoddon andThames along its north-west, with a similarly salient-containing eastern boundary and an almost straight southern boundary. Clockwise the boundaries are approximately 10, 8 and 5 miles on a direct path from point to point. The southern boundary is approximately theRoman road from London to Bath through a highly coniferousSwinley Forest which sits in geology on the naturally acidic,Bagshot Formation.[citation needed]
The whole borough is divided intocivil parishes. The parish councils of Wokingham, Earley and Woodley have officially declared their parishes to be towns, allowing them to take the style 'town council'.[7] Other parishes are Arborfield & Newland, Barkham, Charvil, Finchampstead, Remenham, Ruscombe, Shinfield, Sonning, St Nicholas Hurst, Swallowfield, Twyford, Wargrave and Winnersh. The other parish is Wokingham Without which takes its name from the countryside outside of the urban area of Wokingham.
Two villages have a wide range of small retail and visitor facilities: Wargrave and Twyford. In major employment areas of trading and manufacturing Winnersh and Finchampstead are prominent. The village of Crowthorne is shared between Wokingham and the neighbouring borough of Bracknell Forest. The area has come under extreme pressure to provide more housing in recent years and the council has followed a policy of identifying four strategic development locations referred to as Arborfield Garrison, South of the M4, North and South Wokingham. Much of these have already been built out or largely completed , with South Wokingham being the least complete.[citation needed]
The local authority is Wokingham Borough Council, which has its headquarters at Shute End in Wokingham.[8]
State-funded schools in the borough include ninesecondary schools, twospecial schools and numerousprimary schools. There are also a number ofprivate schools.[citation needed]
Bracknell and Wokingham College is the mainfurther andadult education provider for the borough, just outside the borough its headquarters is inBracknell. The Borough's closesthigher education provider is the mainWhiteknights Park campus of theUniversity of Reading immediately north-west,[citation needed] most of which falls within the Wokingham Borough boundary.
The borough has the highest proportion of home ownership of the six local authorities in Berkshire: combining the social (housing association and local authority provided) and private (private landlord) rented sectors, Slough's returns recorded in 2011 that its rented sector comprised 46% of its housing, whereas 18% of Wokingham's residents rented their homes.[citation needed]
Excluding lower-tier districts, Central Government has classified Wokingham as the least needy Local Authority. Government funding is about £120 per head per year. This is the lowest among the combined category of county councils and unitary authorities, the basis on which it is overall assessed, and compares with over £1000 per head in others such as theLondon Borough of Hackney.[9]
| Tenure in Berkshire compared[10] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unitary Authority | Owned | Owned with a loan | Socially rented | Privately rented | Other |
| Wokingham | 36% | 45% | 7% | 11% | 1% |
| Bracknell Forest | 25% | 44% | 17% | 13% | 1% |
| Reading | 23% | 33% | 17% | 27% | 1% |
| Slough | 19% | 34% | 21% | 25% | 1% |
| West Berkshire | 32% | 39% | 14% | 14% | 2% |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | 33% | 36% | 13% | 16% | 2% |
The following people and military units have received theFreedom of the Borough of Wokingham.
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