Reading councillors decide on 7 October whether part of the A33 becomes John Madejski Way. No ward councillor backed it, and new signs would cost £4,000.
Reading councillors will decide next Wednesday whether to rename part of the A33 Relief Road as John Madejski Way. The stretch runs from the Rose Kiln Lane junction south to the roundabout with Basingstoke Road, past the football stadium Sir John built.
The council’s own officers have not recommended it either way. Their report asks the Planning Applications Committee to choose between renaming the road and keeping the name it has. The meeting is at 6.30pm on 7 October in the Council Chamber at the Civic Centre (agenda).
The consultations behind the decision drew little support. Of eight replies, one backed the idea.
Why the council is proposing it
The idea goes back to a full council meeting in June 2025. A multi-academy trust had decided to drop Sir John’s name from the John Madejski Academy in Whitley, the school he funded.
The council responded with a motion. According to the committee report, it resolved to:
- thank Sir John, a Freeman of the Borough, for decades of philanthropic work in Reading
- note “with dismay” the trust’s decision to remove his name from the academy
- “seek alternative means by which his legacy to our town can be preserved”
The report lists what the motion credited him with: building the new football stadium in 1998, setting up the John Madejski gallery at Reading Museum in 1999, and creating the academy in 2006. Renaming a section of the A33 is the alternative officers developed.
What renaming would mean
About 20 properties would have to change their address, the report says. Most are commercial. The council’s map of the scheme places them around the stadium and further south near the M4.
For those owners, the report lists the practical work an address change brings:
- updating utility, bank, insurance and vehicle records
- replacing signage, stationery and marketing materials
- telling customers, suppliers and delivery firms
- possibly taking legal advice on deeds or leases
It says some of this “will cause residents and businesses to incur costs”. The postcodes might change too, because Royal Mail assigns them.
The council’s cost is put at £4,000 for new street name plates, because of the number of junctions on the stretch. That would come out of existing highways budgets.
The council’s own rule
The report is candid on one point. The council’s Street Naming and Numbering protocol says existing streets are “normally only” renamed when the current name causes problems, or is likely to, for the emergency services.
It adds that the council has not been told by the emergency services that the current name causes any issue.
What the consultations found
The council ran two consultations. The first wrote to the roughly 20 affected properties and stayed open from 25 May to 12 July 2026. None of them replied.
Four other residents wrote in. Officers think the media coverage prompted them. The report counts one in favour and three against.
The supporter wrote: “Yes, Yes, Yes!” They said they were “gutted” when Reading FC sold the stadium’s naming rights, and that naming the main road past it after him “would be wonderful”.
The longest objection said it was “not a criticism of Sir John Madejski”. Its point was whether a major road should be renamed to commemorate anyone. It argued that road names exist for “clarity, consistency and ease of navigation”. Another resident predicted the road “will always be known as the Basingstoke Road if you’ve lived here long enough”, comparing it with the Broad Street Mall, which many still call the Butts Centre.
The ward councillors
The second consultation went to councillors for the wards the road runs through. Four replied: two from Katesgrove, one from Coley and one from Whitley. None supported the proposal.
- A Katesgrove councillor called it a “vanity project” at a time when council resources are stretched. They wrote that Sir John “is a wealthy man who can and does manage his own legacy”.
- The second Katesgrove councillor did not see the need, and suggested any new name should honour someone no longer living.
- The Whitley councillor called it “an admirable way to honour” him but said people would still call it the A33. They warned that spending money on it would upset people in Whitley, which they described as the most deprived ward.
- The Coley councillor said renaming a road after a living person was unusual. They asked whether any donation was linked to the naming, and suggested “Palmer Street” or “Stripes Way”, after the climate warming stripes developed at the University of Reading.
The report publishes the responses anonymously, so we do not name the councillors.
What happens next
If the committee agrees, officers will put the new name into the Local Street Gazetteer and send it to GeoPlace in the first week of November. The report expects addresses to be updated by the end of November, though it says it cannot confirm exact timings because Royal Mail is involved. New name plates take three to four weeks once ordered.
If the committee says no, the road keeps its current name.
What it means for you
If you drive the A33, nothing changes on the road itself. It would still be the A33. Only the street name on the signs and in addresses would change.
If your business has an A33 Relief Road address between Rose Kiln Lane and the Basingstoke Road roundabout, a yes vote would mean a new address by around the end of November. The council wrote to you in May; you can still ask your ward councillors to raise a view before Wednesday.
If you want to watch, the meeting is public and webcast from the agenda page. The same meeting also considers the Winter Wonderland ice rink at Hills Meadow and the rough sleeper units on Abattoirs Road.
For other planning decisions across the borough, see our guide to Reading planning applications.
Sources
- Reading Borough Council, Proposal to rename a section of the A33, report to Planning Applications Committee, 7 October 2026, with the site map and consultation responses as appendices.
- Planning Applications Committee agenda, 7 October 2026.
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