Howard Woollaston: Parish Matters – Mar 2026

March 2026

Well, the daffodils are out and the evenings are definitely getting longer at last. With the amount of rainfall that we have endured I would at least hope that there will be no hosepipe ban this summer. I am flying to South Africa this week for what looks to be warmer and drier climes for a couple of weeks and cannot wait.

Public Issues

There has been a low level of progress during the short month of February on these issues:

• No decision on the planning appeal at Membury.
• No result on the public consultation on the extended pedestrianisation of Northbrook Street and Market Square in Newbury.
• No progress on speed limits.
• No further progress on mobile and internet improvements.

Flooding Issues

The optimism from the recent Flood Forum meeting proved short lived. The Lambourn is extremely high and running fast. The springs are flowing in Upper Lambourn and ground water levels are nearing danger levels.

Despite this Thames Water has clearly made a major impact on the problem with their pipelining and manhole sealing programmes last year. We are in much better shape than 2025, even with the amount of rain we have had since early January.

However, the manholes by the Fire Station, in Upper Lambourn, Station Road, High Street and in Oxford Street have been surcharging, albeit at a lesser rate and despite the best efforts of the ATAC units (effectively mini sewage treatment plants), sewage is getting into the river at both points. I have been in Lambourn usually twice a week since the problem kicked off to monitor the situation and hopefully the speed of flow of the river will dilute any effluent very quickly. Thankfully the local boreholes plateaued and have then started falling. Thames Water are trying to put in a larger ATAC unit at the Fire Station. I am hoping that the recent dry spell might mean that we are over this problem for another year.

Vicky Reunier, Rachel Carden and I are in regular contact with Thames Water trying to get action.                                                                                                                                                                             

WBC Funding

I have now had the joy of receiving the 316-page budget pack three times in about two week – it was considered at the Resources and Place Scrutiny Committee on 10 February, the Executive on 12 February and at Full Council on 26 February. Apart from the quite turgid read I have spent around a total of eight hours discussing and debating it.

Put in simple terms, the Council is in a very serious financial position. It is a statutory requirement that all Councils have a balanced budget – quite hard at times as I know from my time on the Executive between 2019 and 2023, but we managed it. Last year the administration took a £16m Emergency Funding Support (EFS) from government of which £13m was to cover the financial gap in 2024/5 and the remaining £3m for 2025/6.

WBC has now obtained agreement from the government for a further £50m of EFL with £20m needed to balance the current year budget and £30m for 2026/7. Forecasts for 2027/8 and 2028/9 show a further projected EFS borrowing requirement of £87m.

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.

ITS

I thought that I should end on a good-news story…

ITS is a dynamic company based in Newbury who create tastes and flavours for many household name manufacturers. You will find their flavours in anything from mince pies and hot cross buns to health drinks.

The company issued a press release saying that it was moving to Membury, so I picked up the phone to Mike Bagshaw, its founder and Chief Executive, and went to meet him to welcome him to Lambourn ward and offer support if possible and to find out exactly what they are proposing.

What I found was a charming man who is heavily involved in the community and would like to help Lambourn. ITS has purchased the former Arena Seating building on Membury Industrial Estate and intends to strip it back to frame and reroof and reclad it. It totals 85,000 square feet (about two acres).

The business is clean, high-value and low-bulk so traffic generation should be significantly lower than Arena. It employs about forty people at present but is growing at 30% pa and anticipates employing an additional thirty people from the local area when their development is completed in 2027. I have also put him in touch with Bridget Jones who not only lives nearby but is also on the Parish Council.

It seems to me to be exactly the sort of business we want to attract. Going around his existing facility, he is clearly a good employer, knowing all of his staff by their first name. There seems to be a great team spirit there – it even has a bar…

I have added Mike to this distribution list.

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.

I will obviously have my phone with me when away but not my council laptop. If it is urgent please use my personal email address howardwoollaston@aol.com