Lambourn Ward update from District Councillor Howard Woollaston, September/October 2021

I am the ward member (district councillor) for Lambourn and the representative on West Berkshire Council. (The Lambourn Ward has the same borders as the parish of Lambourn.) These reports give a monthly summary of the work that I’ve been involved with in the ward. If matters take more than a month to resolve – which sadly is often the case – then expect to see them referred to more than once. You’ll see my contact details at the end of each section below if you need to get in touch about any of these, or anything else.

Just as some MPs also have executive responsibilities, so do some district councillors at local level. It might be useful to give you a quick overview of what mine are (some of these changed in April 2021):

• I have a seat on the nine-member Executive (WBC’s main decision-making body).
• I am the portfolio holder for Internal Governance (which includes IT, HR, Legal and electoral services, customer communication and all things administrative).
• I am also the portfolio holder for Leisure and Culture (leisure includes leisure centres, playing pitches and anything to do with sport. Culture includes libraries and all of the cultural and heritage buildings and events in the district).
• I am also leading on the Leisure Centre and Football strategies which is, to put it mildly, a testing role.
• I am a member of the Western Area Planning Committee which considers planning issues which either the relevant the ward member/s or a sufficient number of residents feel need to be looked at more closely before a decision is made.

My colleague Clive Hooker is the ward member for Downlands, which includes the parishes of East Garston and Great Shefford, so please contact him if your enquiry relates to that area.

September/October 2021

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, my family and I took a holiday for the back two weeks of September so apologies if you have been waiting for a response from me on anything. I did take a few calls on urgent matters and tried to keep up with the more important emails. Thankfully there were no emergencies for our dogs or house/dog sitter to deal with…

When I sat down to write this, I thought that, because of my absence, it would be a much shorter newsletter than usual. Looking back, I see that this isn’t quite the case: proof that I may go away but the issues in the ward do not.

District Parish Conference

Firstly, a reminder that the conference is taking place virtually on Tuesday 19 October. If you wish to join using Zoom, please let me know and I will try to arrange it for you. Zoom obviously has a limited number of users at one time and parish councillors are given priority so it will be first come, first served.

Lambourn Primary School

Over the last few months there have been some complaints about parking at school drop off and pick up times, so I arranged to meet the Principal, Rachel Perkins. It is a year or so since I last visited the school and I was even more impressed by the quality of facilities, including a heated outdoor swimming pool, and how well it appears to be run. We are very lucky to have such a marvellous educational facility in Lambourn.

Rachel showed me child-friendly signs to deter inconsiderate parking and how their system worked to speed up the process of delivery and collection of pupils. Some parents are also parking in the Leisure Centre and walking their children the last few yards. Every school in the district has the same issues and it is clearly most problematic in those that serve a rural area, but Lambourn School seems to be doing its best to resolve this problem itself. Please follow any signs or requests that are made by Rachel and her team.

Membury Industrial Estate/B4000 and speeding

I mentioned last month that I had arranged a meeting with Senior Planning and Highways Officers of WBC to look at the issues facing our community from speeding and, in particular, HGVs on the B4000 and the threat to having more traffic onto the main valley road.

This was productive. They are going to undertake some further traffic surveys ahead of arranging a meeting with the Woodlanders Action Group in advance of the district-wide speed limit review in the spring.

As anticipated, the asphalt plant application on the Estate has been withdrawn, at least for now.

Other planning and licensing issues

I am sure that we are all pleased to see the opening of Family Mart in Market Place in Lambourn: I for one wish them every success in their endeavours. I did not oppose the licensing application to sell alcohol, but I am concerned about the illuminated sign which I think is not in keeping with the High Street. I will be arranging to meet with the proprietors to discuss options.

The Fognam Farm, Upper Lambourn Application comes to Western Area Planning Committee on 13 October, (you can see the agenda and links to the documents here) and I will be speaking as ward member. It is opposed by a number of local residents, but the site visit I recently attended suggests that the applicants have addressed the majority of the key issues. The committee will decide, and I’ll let you know the result next month.

Less straightforward will be an application for a residential caravan use at Four Acres Yard South of Ermine Street in the Woodlands – one to watch!

Lambourn Neighbourhood Development Plan

I attended two of the sessions to get public input to the plan before I went on holiday. I was pleased to see some positive and, in some cases, forthright views put forward. We really do need community engagement in this process.

Urgency is now back on as the new Minister, Michael Gove, has changed a number of issues. As a result, West Berkshire Council is now pressing ahead with its local plan for submission in 2022 rather than deferring it a further two years. The next meeting of the NDP Steering Group is this week and we will be aiming to achieve a tight timetable to get our plan completed. More information can be found on the NDP’s website

Other issues

The trail bike/off roaders are back again. Bucklebury has been particularly successful at curtailing this menace through working jointly with the Police, and West Berkshire and Lambourn Parish Councils and Parish. I will be trying to follow their example.

There have been some complaints of weed spraying by Council contractors which I am following up.

Back in the saddle

After a wonderful two-week holiday in the sun – something which the relaxing of the regulations now makes widely possible again – I returned to the colder, wetter, and more overcast world of West Berkshire. For anyone planning a trip, I can offer the reassuring news that we were through passport control at Heathrow in under 30 minutes, We were bracing ourselves for a far longer wait. I then turned round in 12 hours and went up to Manchester to the Conservative Conference. This was, as ever, uplifting, positive and exhausting in roughly equal measure.

I am delighted to be back with you as we move further into autumn. As mentioned at the top of this post, I have a number of responsibilities at West Berkshire Council, but my primary role is as the ward member, representing you. This is also the part of the job I find the most interesting. As ever, if I can help, please get in touch with me on 07836 718100 or Howard.woollaston1@westberks.gov.uk.