Howard Woollaston – Lambourn Matters – June 2021

6th June2021

I am the ward member (district councillor) for Lambourn and the representative on West Berkshire Council. (The Lambourn Ward has the same borders as the parish of Lambourn.) These reports give a monthly summary of the work that I’ve been involved with in the ward. If matters take more than a month to resolve – which sadly is often the case – then expect to see them referred to more than once. You’ll see my contact details at the end of each section below if you need to get in touch about any of these, or anything else.

Just as some MPs also have executive responsibilities, so do some district councillors at local level. It might be useful to give you a quick overview of what mine are (seem of these changed in April 2021):

• I have a seat on the nine-member Executive (WBC’s main decision-making body).
• I am the portfolio holder for Internal Governance (which includes includes IT, HR, Legal and electoral services, customer communication and all things administrative).
• I am also the portfolio holder for Leisure and Culture (leisure includes leisure centres, playing pitches and anything to do with sport. Culture includes libraries and all of the cultural and heritage buildings and events in the district).
• I am also leading on the Leisure Centre and Football strategies which is, to put it mildly, a testing role.
• I am a member of the Western Area Planning Committee which considers planning issues which either the relevant the ward member/s or a sufficient number of residents feel need to be looked at more closely before a decision is made.

My colleague Clive Hooker is the ward member for Downlands, which includes the parishes of East Garston and Great Shefford, so please contact him if your enquiry relates to that area.

Notes: The reports were provided at the end of the first-named month below. Any links in the text have been added by Penny Post which will take you to articles on the Penny Post website or elsewhere. 

May/June 2021

It may have been one of the wettest Mays on record, but the caseload certainly has not dried up…

Lambourn Parish Council

Moz Bulbeck-Reynolds, the new Chair, is rapidly getting into stride but she confessed that it is rather more work than she had anticipated. We had our first catch-up session together which we both agreed was really useful and constructive. We are going to continue them on at least a quarterly basis so that we have a joined-up approach in representing the interests of parish/ward residents (Lambourn is a rare example of a place where the boundaries of each are identical, which simplifies my role somewhat).

I also attended, spoke, and answered questions at the recent Parish Council Assembly. This was held at the Memorial Hall with Moz, three members of Thames Valley Police and me, with Mike Billinge-Jones organising the technical side so that people were able to Zoom in and ask questions. It was very successful and really quite slick.

Sad to say, the same could not be said of the Parish Council meeting on 2 June. Most Parish Councillors came to the Hall while I along with several others joined by Zoom. The sound quality was appalling and after nearly an hour straining our ears to understand what was being said, most of us regretfully gave up. I have agreed to discuss this with Moz next week when she returns from a short holiday and will see if we can come up with a solution. One of the things that has been a positive from Covid has been far greater involvement of the public and interest in local government both at district-council and parish level. It would be a real shame to lose that through a lack of some relatively minor gremlins in the technology.

The notes of the meeting can be seen here at Lambourn.org’s site.

Sewage works

My fellow Councillor, Clive Hooker (whose ward covers from East Garston across to West Ilsley – no convenient one ward = one parish situation for him) and I were interviewed by Penny Post when a team from Thames Water was doing work to line the sewers in East Garston in May. Click here to see it. Whilst I by no means put in an Oscar performance, I think the main points came across quite well. Thames Water seems to be meeting its promises so far.

Very recent news is that there has been a mains water failure near Junction 14 of the M4 which is affecting a limited number of residents in the Woodlands. Thames Water is on the case and is tankering in fresh water to keep mains pressure at an acceptable level until a permanent fix can be done.

Planning issues

Planning applications continue to come in and I have contacted the relevant planning officer on two of these – Jamie Osbourne’s Gallop at the top of Lynch Wood and Tom and Alex Ward’s for a house at Whitehouse Stables.

A campaign to object to the asphalt plant proposal at Membury Industrial Estate is rapidly gaining momentum.

Also, at Membury, after the approval of the Walker Logistics application, I arranged to meet Charlie Walker to discuss ways in which we could mitigate traffic generation on the B4000 and deal with those companies who are not as responsible as Walkers and flout the rules. I am trying to get a meeting of minds between Thames Valley Police, West Berkshire Council Highways team and other interested parties to both reduce speed limits and, more importantly, enforce them. Walker Logistics is happy to assist. I very much hope that the Woodlanders Action Group will take a prominent role, but it also potentially affects the villages in the valley in case the bottom road is used as a rat run.

Covid

Whilst there have been a very few cases of the Indian Variant (now known as Delta), West Berkshire remains in good shape with fewer than 30 cases per 100,000 population in the week ending 31 May, which were primarily caused by two outbreaks in schools elsewhere in the district. It is worth mentioning for those of you who use the mobile lateral flow testing service at Woodlands St. Mary Village Hall on Fridays between 1.15 and 2.00 that there was a day missed last week due to staff illness but normal service should by now have resumed.

For more information, see this clickable map (which enables you to zoom in to an often ward-level of detail.

Parking at the school

Drop-off and collection issues at the Primary School have been raised with me. Whilst this is essentially a health and safety concern – with the fear that a child might be injured where cars are temporarily parked – it is also a significant inconvenience to people who live close to the school . There does not seem to be an easy solution and it is a similar theme for all schools in the district. It is obviously more of a problem for those in rural areas where, for many, walking or cycling to school is impractical. I suspect that Covid has also been a factor with less car-sharing.

I have been in touch with both the Headteacher and West Berkshire’s traffic safety team to try and find a way to improve things. They are working together, and I have agreed to review matters again at the end of this month.

Other matters

• Wall repairs at Three Posts Lane – just who is responsible?
• Upgrading Fulke Walwyn Way in Upper Lambourn to stop both the mud and dust at different times of the year. Jockey Club Estates and West Berkshire Council are now in touch to find a suitable solution.

At least now the weather seems to have turned for the better as we move into summer. Our holiday plans have all been cancelled – a situation many others will find themselves in – and we will be having a staycation. Then again, we are all fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful parts of the UK. Please stay safe and remain aware of social distancing. Hopefully we will have more relaxations of restrictions on 21 June.

Get in touch

Please do get in touch if I can help – 07836 718100 or Howard.woollaston1@westberks.gov.uk.