Howard Woollaston: Parish Matters – April 2026
April 2026
Firstly, could I wish you a very Happy Easter. It is such a relief that, following the clock change, we are getting longer evenings. With blossom out and plants and grass growing again, it really feels as if spring has sprung.
I’ve noticed the seasonal shift more than usual as I was away on holiday for the first two months of March and returned to a very full pair of email inboxes – council and personal. A lot has still happened over the last few weeks…
Membury Industrial Estate
Firstly, the very disappointing news on the planning appeal decision on the Asphalt plant. The Inspector gave approval for it on 26 March.
The Woodlanders Protection Group and the horseracing industry assembled a group of experts ranging from equine vets to traffic engineers and a raft of evidence from across the world. However, with due respect to the Inspector, he failed to put enough weight on this, mistakenly in my view.
We are where we are but to risk a £25m pa key business to our ward and parish in exchange for five jobs which may well come from Swindon seems to me to be illogical.
Next, we have the application for storage by the Trinity Grain Store. I was one of the Councillors involved in the preparation of the West Berkshire Council Local Plan in the early 2020s.
I was opposed to further development on Membury mainly on the grounds of traffic generation on the B4000 and particularly by HGVs. Accordingly, I achieved agreement that the Designated Employment Area (DEA) would be allocated for what was then called B2 use – basically light industrial, which would be more van orientated and create genuine jobs in our area.
I was therefore horrified to be recently told by the Planning Officer allocated that it would be difficult to refuse open storage in this application as it was in the DEA.
I am calling the application into committee to see if there is any way around this and am disappointed and annoyed that something I regarded as an achievement can be just ignored.
Then, on to the Walkers’s site. I recently drove around the outside of their new building and, to give them credit, they have done a cracking job of building their new facility.
There are significant bunds surrounding the containment ponds which deal with excess water to avoid it flowing onto the roads and adjacent property, which have had the added advantage of hiding the bulk of the building. There is an issue with light spreading into dark skies – I am told it can be seen from over a mile away – which I’ll be taking up with Planning Enforcement.
Walkers have now submitted a further application to reduce the museum to a third of its proposed size and convert the rest of it to distribution. I will also call this into committee to ensure that the change will not increase traffic generation.
Flooding issues
Things do seem to be better again as groundwater levels are dropping. I try to drive around to the known problem areas two or three times a week at this time of the year to check.
Vicky Reunier, Rachel Carden and Chris Harris have been absolute Trojans reporting issues and keeping Thames Water’s feet to the fire. We are having a catch-up session next week ahead of a meeting with Thames Water the following week which our MP, Lee Dillon, has promised to attend.
WBC’s funding
I am sad to say that the situation has deteriorated even further over the last month. At the Budget Council Meeting, the Finance Policy Holder predicted a borrowing level for this year of £75m. That has now increased in just four weeks to £95m. This is double what the Council borrowed in 2024/2025. It just seems that spending at the Council is completely out of control.
To repeat what I said last month:” I fully accept that services need to be retained and that our statutory obligations for adult social care and children’s services take nearly two thirds of the annual budget and are growing exponentially. However, this level of borrowing is just not sustainable We are just ramping up a massive debt burden for the next generation in the vain hope that government will bail us out at some stage in the future. I am not suggesting cutting essential services, but vanity projects and waste of resources generally have to stop.”
It has just got a whole lot worse.
Pedestrianisation in Newbury
Newbury Weekly News revealed – as a result of seeing a paper that appears to have been leaked by an officer of the Council – that the administration at West Berkshire Council have been sitting on an internal consultation response report that clearly says:
- Traffic congestion on the A339 has deteriorated
- Retailers are reporting a loss of trade
- Deliveries to shops has proved difficult
- People feel less safe in the dark
- There is no discernible increase in café society
All these are perfectly obvious to many average people going to Newbury.
The Chairman of the Council at the Full Council meeting on 26 March refused to allow any emergency questions to be asked at Council that very evening.
An Extraordinary Council Meeting has now been agreed after a formal complaint was put in according to the rules of the constitution, but not for six weeks. I leave it to you to decide if that is reasonable.
Neighbourhood Development Plan
I intervened at the request of Sue Cocker as the proposed date for the Council to consider the Plan was July. I contacted the Leader of the Council and to his credit he arranged for it to be brought forward to next month.
Hopefully after a final further consultation it can then go off to the Inspector, and we might get it adopted in early 2027 – a saga that seemed to be going on interminably thus now has its end date in sight…
Lambourn Open Day
I am so sorry that I had to miss the Open Day this year. I just had too much to get through (see comment at the top about by inboxes) including getting this newsletter produced in time for it to get into Penny Post’s Valley of the Racecourse e-newsletter. Thankfully the weather was reasonably kind. I hope that many people that attended had a great day.
Get in touch
If you have any concerns or need any help, please get in touch on howard.woollaston1@westberks.gov.uk or 07836 718100.
