A message from our District Councillor

What a change in a month! I looked back through my diary and less than four weeks ago my wife and I were out having lunch with friends on a Sunday, happily shaking hands and Covid-19 hadn’t been heard of although there were stories of Coronavirus in some distant province in China.

Today it is virtually the only topic of conversation and all, but essential workers are in lockdown. Whilst we have both of my mid 20’s stepsons working from home and my wife has had to close her shop and café in Hungerford we are very lucky to have the space and the technology from 4G mobile phone signal and fibre connection to the web to be able to communicate relatively normally. I am very conscious that many others in Lambourn, Eastbury and The Woodlands don’t have that luxury and the need to distance ourselves from Friends and Family is a real trial.

So, what can I tell you about the response from West Berkshire District Council? In a word unbelievable! Under the leadership of Nick Carter, the Chief Executive, and Lynne Docherty, Leader of the Council, the Executive Team and staff have swung into action. The key issue is looking after those most at risk and vulnerable. Specifically, we have put the following in place: –

A Community Support Hub has been set up to coordinate peoples ‘needs and to organise volunteers. Contact it at westberksbct@westberks.go.uk or 01635 503579. There is also a Lambourn volunteer group covering every street in Lambourn for deliveries, food orders, collecting prescriptions etc. 01488 50 50 50. Email: volunteer@lambourn.org
All non-essential Council Meetings have been cancelled and Executive Officers meet daily, team leaders three times a week, the Executive Councillors, of whom I am one twice a week and all Councillors once a week.
The Council Offices are closed to the public but there is a skeleton staff at work with the rest working from home.
All meetings are now held by videoconferencing using a system called Zoom.
Libraries, playgrounds, civic amenity sites and cultural locations are all closed. Care homes are in isolation apart from controlled end of life visits.
A leaflet is being delivered to every house and flat in West Berkshire with more details.
Business Rates have been cancelled for 12 months, most SME’s who pay Business rates will be receiving a grant and letters on this should be going out this week.
A hardship fund is being made available for those in desperate financial need and deferral of Council Tax can be arranged. Please get in touch with customerservices@westberks.gov.uk or 01635 551111
A food distribution centre has been created in Newbury for those vulnerable or self-isolating who do not have friends or family to help them. Again, contact the hub.

The Council is making strenuous efforts to keep key services going. The refuse service, outsourced to Veolia, is a good example and staff previously working at the civic amenity centres are being used to backfill where operators have contracted the virus. The bus services from Lambourn have sadly become a casualty for now as it proved impossible to staff them and, in any event, demand has dropped dramatically.

A few other points. In any crisis there always those “no goods” who try to take advantage of people. Please be aware of any scams particularly if they ask for personal financial information. Please while maintaining social distance keep an eye out for neighbours particularly if they are elderly, frail or vulnerable.

It seems of less importance in the current crisis, but it would be remiss of me not to mention the flooding and sewage problem that has affected so many. One of my last face to face meetings was to chair the Lambourn Valley Flood Forum. This is attended by village/flood wardens from all villages in the Valley together with representatives of the Environment Agency, Thames Water and West Berkshire District Council. We spent some time debating how to overcome what in my opinion is a completely unacceptable situation. It will perhaps be of no surprise to you that there is no easy quick fix. The issue is that we had over 250% more rainwater in February than the seasonal average so that the groundwater levels are literally inches below the surface which is putting massive pressure on the sewerage pipes. This has not been seen for 10 and possibly 20 years.

Thames Water, at there own cost, have been providing tankers to minimise the problem, for which they need to be applauded. We agreed to get through to post virus and then review the way forward. Was 2020 a one-off year or has climate change moved the goalposts?

We are fortunate to have a very efficiently run council, who in this crisis have proved very agile at getting things done quickly. It only remains for me to ask you to follow Government advice, keep healthy and well and we will hopefully be back to normality in the not too far distant future.

If I can help, please do get in touch.

With my best wishes to you all.

Howard

Howard Woollaston

West Berkshire Conservative District Councillor for Lambourn

Portfolio Holder for Internal Governance

Howard.woollaston1@westberks.gov.uk