Howard Woollaston: Parish Matters – June 2024
Howard Woollaston
West Berkshire Councillor: Lambourn Ward
The General Election has been called for July 4th and I would urge you to get a postal vote and/or get yourself on the Electoral Roll. Whichever party you support, I believe that it is one of the most important citizen’s rights to vote for a government. For me the next four weeks are unbelievably busy so please bear with me if I do not respond as quickly as usual.
Council business continues as usual but there are clear rules that anything which is politically sensitive which could affect the vote is temporarily banned.
This has been a surprisingly quiet month for me, partly I am sure because of the two bank holidays and school half terms. My apologies for a shortened version of Parish Matters to normal.
Sewage and flood risks
Laura Farris’s meeting with the relevant minister proved productive and we have an in-principle agreement that a fluvial consultancy will be paid for out of Government funds- that clearly might change! She proposed to hold a public meeting in Lambourn on the matter, with Thames Water and the Environment Agency now obviously either postponed or cancelled.
Vicky Rieunier, Chair of Lambourn Parish Council arranged a meeting with three operational members of Thames Water, also attended by Chris Harris, Rachel Carden, and me. She is preparing a note of the meeting including action points to go onto the Parish Council Website, Lambourn.org and Penny Post so “I will not steal her thunder” but suffice to say it was a very positive and effective session which gives me some encouragement that there may be “light at the end of the tunnel”. I asked all of the questions which have been raised with me and was generally pleased with the responses.
Groundwater levels continue to fall and are about to get to a position when TW can put cameras into the sewer pipes and find out exactly where the problems are.
Neighbourhood Development Plan
We are almost there at last. The Steering Group had a final session with our planning consultants and identified the few remaining areas that still needed input. With a following wind we will have it submitted to West Berkshire Council by very early July, after which it needs to go through WBC Council in September and then off to the Inspector before coming back to residents for a referendum and then becoming a very important document in the planning process going forward.
Lambourn Parish Council Annual Assembly
As your Ward Member I attended this and made a brief speech outlining key issues over the last 12 months – not surprisingly most were water and sewage related!
Senior Government Visitor
At the time of writing for obvious security reasons I could not identify the identity, but along with our previous MP, Laura Farris, I welcomed the Foreign Secretary The Right Honourable Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton to Lambourn this Tuesday June 4th. He met some people in Market Square at 2.30 where photographs were taken (with a very good shot of the back of my head !!) and he then went on to meet some racehorse trainers to discuss the impact on our key local industry through potential damaging gambling legislation. Davi was very much on home turf being originally from this part of the world and he is clearly knowledgeable about the racing issues. There was significant coverage in the Newbury Weekly News.
Get in touch.
Whatever is concerning you please do get in touch 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.
