Howard Woollaston: Parish Matters – October 2022

In my last Parish Matters newsletter, I see that I was talking about heatwaves. This is a subject that will not feature this time: indeed, quite the reverse as autumn is well on its way and the days are getting shorter and chillier. This leads directly to one of the main things I want to discuss this month.

Housing and Cost of Living Issues

The West Berkshire Council (WBC) Parish Report is provided by me to those requesting it and is published in the Lambourn.org website. Some of it is a little turgid but it is worth a five-minute scan to see the issues that face us across West Berkshire. The key ones are inevitably the cost of living and energy crises which will, of course, become particularly acute when winter arrives.

Lambourn and its surrounding villages and hamlets are a surprisingly diverse community with areas of great wealth and others with significant deprivation (hence the need for the superb efforts of the Lambourn Junction). Central Government is providing support to people and businesses to reduce the impact on energy costs and has also provided WBC with £694,000 for the six months to March 2023 to support individual households in need.

Separately, WBC has match funded £50,000 with Greenham Common Trust which we jointly hope will be contributed to by local people and businesses to provide a £200,000 safety net. The Council has also provided a further £200,000 to four local charities specifically to help pensioners.

It is worth pointing out that rising costs have also hit WBC, as with Councils across the Country. I recently spent seven hours in a budget meeting trying to balance the books. Sadly, very little of this could have been anticipated when budgets were set in the early part of this year before Putin’s war in Ukraine. Thankfully, WBC was and remains a financially well-run council: so, if we are struggling, heaven help some of the others!!!!

The Covid crisis showed how communities can pull together and I have no doubt that the current situation will engender the same resolve. If you or anyone that you know are in need please turn to help. The council has set up a hub similar to the covid one: –

www.westberks.gov.uk/cost-of-living

Speeding

This is a problem that (like so many others) just will not go away. There has, however, been some progress.

Traffic calming measures have been installed in Eastbury as an experiment for elsewhere in the ward. I am personally extremely disappointed in them as they are by no means prominent enough nor do they have the rubberised strips in a light grey colour that we were promised. I have tackled the Highways Team on this. The response was that the posts are as close together as can permit large tractors, horseboxes and the like to be able to get through. What I had hoped for as a Baydon-type solution is therefore just not feasible. It is an unfortunate irony that the narrowness of the road through the village not only makes the speeding problem there so serious but also prevents some of the solutions that would help solve it.

Budget cuts (see above) were cited as the reason for removing the strips. However, if these calming measures make no difference, then our argument for a 20mph limit in Eastbury is strengthened.

In Lambourn, I have had some useful meetings with the Parish Council and some well-informed members of the public and an initiative is underway to try and recruit volunteers to be trained on handheld speed cameras. Please do get in touch with the Clerk, Karen Wilson, if you would like to be involved info@lambourn-pc.gov.uk

Lambourn Neighbourhood Development Plan

The request for sites generated a good response which are being analysed by the Consultants and the final resident’s feedback sessions should take place shortly.

More information on the Lambourn NDP can be found by clicking here.

Nutrient neutrality

There has been no real further progress at a local level and, as a result, some planning applications are not progressing as fast as they should be while planners get to grips with the new regulations designed to protect our waterways.

However, I can report from fringe meetings I attended at the recent Conservative Party Conference that the problem is clearly understood by Central Government and that it is working hard to unblock things. I was able to specifically raise the issues of the racing industry in Lambourn with both DEFRA and DLUHC Ministers.

CIL and Members’ Bids

WBC periodically enables District Councillors to bid for funding of up to £3,000 for local projects (Members’ Bids); also – sadly, less frequently – for larger projects of up to £50,000 (CIL bids). Here is a summary of what’s recently been accomplished with these and what the next opportunities are.

Work is now completed on the surfacing of Fulke Walwyn Way, so taking racehorses off busy roads and reducing inconvenience to local residents. The £20,000 project was jointly funded by the Jockey Club Estates and my CIL bid to WBC.

The next tranche of money is now available, and I am working with Vicky Rieunier, who chairs Lambourn Parish Council’s Halls & Streets Committee, for a joint bid totalling over £50,000 to replace all of the streetlights for modern, environmentally friendly versions which will result in future significant annual cost savings to the parish. The parish Council have already raised their 50% of the cost and it ticks all of the boxes , so I am hopeful.

The next round of members’ bid funding is now open (note that the £3,000 I can raise needs to be match funded). If anybody has any ideas, please get in touch. Previous bids have resulted in new children’s’ play equipment at both the school and Mill Lane Recreation Ground

Membury Industrial Estate and the B4000

If I am honest, less progress on this than I had hoped. A combination of summer holidays, the sad death of Her Majesty The Queen and the fact that I have been a little out of commission for a few weeks (see below) means that the momentum has fallen away from the cross department review of the Industrial Estate by WBC but I am on the case again.

I have talked to Highways yet again about the B4000 and speeding. Thames Valley Police are reluctant to reduce the limit to 40 MPH as they do not believe it to be enforceable. I have suggested Average Speed Limit Cameras between the Industrial Estate and The Pheasant but have got push back and I think that the best hope is for speed cameras either side of the turn off to Chilton Foliat.

Planning consent was granted for a renewal of the B8 (storage & distribution use) consent on the access road to Membury Services Westbound despite strong representations against from both me and the Parish Council. The point was made strongly however about both HGV traffic generation and avoiding any subsequent change of use to an asphalt plant as was previously attempted.

I will continue in my attempts to limit further growth there.

John O’Gaunt’s School

Whilst obviously not in Lambourn, many of our school age children attend JOG.I mentioned last time the contribution of WBC financially to this new 3G artificial sports pitch and the grant application. We hope to receive confirmation of the grant imminently so hopefully work can commence early in the New Year. Also, at JOG we have managed to vary a planning consent for a new dance studio. This will be a modular building which will hopefully be installed in the Summer 2023 holidays as a WBC initiative.

Back on the hustings

I have been your ward Councillor for three and a half years now and I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenges and many interesting features of the job. It is particularly gratifying where I have been able to make a difference to residents’ lives and help solve problems for them.

The current democratic cycle is coming to its end and District Council elections will take place in May next year. I have decided to put myself forward as candidate for the job again. I have been put on the selection list and hope to be a candidate.

I had intended to be walking the streets by now, knocking on doors and talking to people but. unfortunately, I had a fairly serious car accident in the Eastbury Shute recently. Whilst well on the mend, I shall be a little incapacitated for the next few weeks. I was only doing 20mph in a head on collision, but I urge you all to take care in our narrow lanes – whiplash is certainly not to be recommended!!!

Get in touch

Whiplash or not, I am here to help if I can. You can contact me on 07836 718100 or Howard.woollaston1@westberks.gov.uk.

My thanks as ever to Brian Quinn of Penny Post for bringing his journalistic expertise to my ramblings.