It is not a grand design and it does not cost millions, yet it could sort out Reading’s congestion problems. A plan – potentially revolutionary in its simplicity – drawn up by Reading Civil Engineer and charity director Adrian Windisch to turn the IDR into a driveable route. The 41-year-old believes making small changes to vehicles in Reading would bring better traffic flow and reduce congestion.

Mr Windisch, says "Any vehicle not powered by electricity or chip oil could have a team of environmental assessors tag it with a suitable marking, say 'Hawk' or 'Set2007'. Then overnight Green Crews from Dee Road and Whitley could visit and arrange for its tyres to be slashed or maybe even have it torched. This would have two advantages: (1) The IDR would then be relatively free of traffic for my Lard-a, and (2) it would cut anti-social behaviour, as obviously it would be legal to carry knives and torch cars, contributing to a massive reduction in Reading's crime figures. And as an added bonus anything found in the glove compartment would also go towards the redistribution of wealth.