District Councillors Nick, Vic & Geoff

Beacons will be lit nationally on VE Day 80 8 May at 9.30pm

Co-Op Mortimer has served notice of intent to stop its Sub Post Office service on 15 May.  We and Mortimer's parish council Clerk, received an email from Olivia Bailey MP, proposing we discuss what to do about it. We've replied, agreeing in principal but asking what she thinks councils can do.  And at a wise person's suggestion, I've suggested she ask Post Office to assure any would be new franchise operator that no payment is expected for taking it on, nor any shop re-fit cost incurred.  If I don't hear back soon I'll try to contact Post Office myself about this. Meanwhile, at a colleague's suggestion, I've created a petition to Co Op HQ. 

Possible Bus Route Extension

My thanks to potential bus users for filling THIS survey on  extending route(s) to St Mary's school and Mortimer station. There was a good take-up with the staff investigating the viability of the extension, saying the insights captured are very helpful. This is not to say the new route(s) will happen, but we're trying.  

If you want to be the first to hear about future surveys relating to local service improvements, you'd be advised to sign up to receive this newsletter or to follow me on social media - details at the end.. 

Speed Limit outside St Mary's Mortimer

The survey I mentioned above also explores appetite for a  reduced speed limit outside St Mary's school, at school drop off/pick up time. Again there's been a good response to that. I've taken advice from Alan Macro, our Theale councillor, who successfully spearheaded a limit reduction in Theale, on the next steps.

I've separately received some calls for speed reductions in parts of Burghfield Common. If you have any thought on this, please share them below. The speed questions come towards the end.

Another way we might get transport improvements is through the council's Local Transport Plan. It aims to deliver: a "gear change" to increase walking and cycling; bus improvements; and a plan to meet "Net Zero" (carbon emissions).  Please take give you views on this - it presents a further chance to call for more bus services, foot/cycle paths between villages or anything else you think is relevant to such a plan. The survey closes on Sun 25 May. 

The council recently approved a 3-year highway improvement and maintenance programme. This year local surfacing work is planned for:

• Reading Road from Hollybush Lane to the Goring Lane mini roundabout/Three Firs Crossroads;
• The Hatch from 70m. south west to 70m. north east of the Theale Road junction;
• Pingewood Road South between Amners Farm South and the railway bridge;
• Goring Lane from 250m. to 300m. east of the Lockram Lane junction.  

Some disruption will be inevitable but staff assure me they will coordinate will other planned projects and utility works to minimise disruption. They ask for your patience/understanding during the work.   I’ll aim to notify subscribers to my Facebook page HERE of each job just ahead of its start.  If you need to report any concerns or problems during the work, please do so via the “Report a Problem” web site.  

Years 2 and 3 of the programme might change after the annual road condition survey.  It's a significant programme overall totally almost 65km of various types of treatment on our roads.  Even "Highways Industry",whoever they are, calls it ambitious.

Whilst there are still too many potholes out there, the fact remains that about 70% of council money goes on the essential adult social and childrens' services. Welshman's Road, Padworth has been in a particularly poor state for a long time.  The offending stretch falls within Hampshire. I know that people have raised the matter on their web site - which I see seems to threaten that repeatedly raising it will slow it down.  You might consider contacting Luke Murphy the MP for the area to ask if pothole repair funding has been given to Hampshire, and if so to prioritise that stretch. Our MP Olivia Bailey reports that money was given to West Berks and Reading councils for this. 

At the recent forum for parish councils, April Peberdy, head of Community Services, outlined a new initiative that aims to give residents early access to diverse information, within their community.  The diagram above gives a flavour of the scope and April has asked parish councils to provide feedback and suggest suitable venues for hubs.  Venues might include libraries, community halls, "warm spaces" (eg Mortimer Methodist Church on Fridays) or community cafes (Cafe B perhaps).  The name Community Outreach Hub is a working title, by the way - it might change.

A partnership between West Berkshire Council, Thames Valley Police and Newbury Business Improvement District aims to transform venues into 'Safe Places’.  The scheme aims to create places of safety to, for example, allow people to call a friend, ask for a taxi or dial 999. It's part of the Safe Places National Network. 

Also coming soon, an open online forum for you to ask questions, share your views with others, suggest an idea/improvement or even have a polite moan about something.

The Budget

West Berkshire Council approved its budget for 2025/26 on 27 Feb.  The agenda and papers are HERE and the session is HERE.  The Government agreed to the council's request for a loan of about £16M to avoid bancruptcy. 

Have Your Say On Leisure Services

 I'm currently gathering some feedback on the class-booking process, but perhaps you have other issues or feedback - positive or negative?  If you have any feedback on, or concerns about the leisure service run by Willink Leisure Centre, you'll soon be able to share this on my Community Connect forum (trailed above) but meanwhile if there's anything pressing, just email me HERE. 

Meanwhile two weekly "outreach" exercise classes for seniors that started recently at the Mortimer Community Centre recently are well attended. 

Parish Councils Cancel Funding

I understand Mortimer, Burghfield and Sulhampstead parish councils have served notice on West Berkshire Council of intention to cut their annual contribution totalling about £50K towards Willink Leisure Centre services effective from April 2026. Although I'm on Mortimer parish council I wasn't at the meeting where this cut was discussed.  

I understand that the payments themselves started, at parish councils' suggestion, in 1997, after the covered swimming pool was added to the centre. The payment was intended to give parish councils (and indirectly their residents) a say on the service. A Joint Advisory Committee was formed, comprising leisure service provider staff, council staff, district and parish councillors. It met periodically, but face-to-face meetings were suspended in 2020, owing to COVID. I'm unsure whether virtual meeting were arranged and - and if not why not -  or whether the last council adminstration queried why they hadn't re-started.

When concerns were raised at a Mortimer parish council meeting last year, that the committee hadn't met, I offered to follow up with West Berks Council's leisure services manager. The offer was declined in favour of studying the agreement and writing to the council.  I contacted the manager anyway. She apologised for the delay in re-starting meetings, saying that it was in part down to staff shortages and partly the logistics of setting up meetings for the large group. She added that meetings were due to re-start following the arrival of two new staff members. She stressed that she was keen for parish councils to have their say on the lesure activities and that this need not wait for a meeting - issues could be raised to her or the leisure provider, Everyone Active at any time.  

The manager added that she'd met some members of Mortimer parish council and felt their concerns were being addressed. The committee met in January and parish councils attended. It's been a shock to the district council to receive the termination notice.

At Mortimer's Annual Parish Meeting on 28 April - the parish council chairman suggested that the saving might better be spent on unspecified "other things". A resident asked what the impact of this decision might be on leisure services. Right now I don't think we know. Nigel Foot, our portfolio lead, is trying to arrange to meet the 3 parish councils to see if an agreeable way forward can be found. 

Weekly black bin capacity - before the West Berks change

This table shows the average weekly black bin capacity, by council, with West Berks shown in its current 2 weekly cycle. It shows that residents have an average weekly non recyclable waste capacity here of 120 litres - higher than all others shown. The 3 weekly plan will change that to 80 litres, the same as Bracknell, more than others, and less than Wokingham, Slough and the other one that I can't read.

West Berks proposed weekly black bin capacity (3-weekly collection)

This table compares the current and planned black bin collection intervals, assuming a 240-litre black bin and the council’s expected non recyclable waste output per week.  This shows the weekly capacity is still equal to or greater than several other councils (fortnightly offers more flexibility in what to dispose of when):

Summary:

• Under the proposal, West Berks residents can put on average 80 litres of non recylable waste in their black bin.
• With the 240L bin and fewer collections per month, the council expects households to generate less residual waste per week.
• The increased roadside recycling collection seeks to prevent the possibility of running out of black bin space.
• If you find you cannot cope after the change is introduced please get in toich with the council for support.

The graph below aims to show the growth in waste (both recycled and not) collected from the roadside, even when green waste is excluded (as it probably should be because it is a chargeable service). 

Questions?

If you'd like to discuss any aspect there are local drop ins next week.  Unfortunately these take place during the council staff's normal working hours, so if you can't make it feel free to get in touch.

Plastic Pots, Tub & Trays - a slightly revised list of dos and don't.

To help deliver on that new waste strategy, the council is now collecting of certain plastic pots, tubs and trays from the roadside to make it easier for residents to recycle such items.  

These items can now be put out for recycling in the soft green bag along with cartons and cans. Please note that, rather like Ali's Recycling, our list is quite specific:

• Small/large pots that contained cream (without film lids)
• large yoghurt or creme fraiche pots (and their plastic non film lids)
• Individual Clear yoghurt pots (without film lids)
• Spread/margarine tubs and their lids
• Biscuit tray packaging
• Plastic takeaway tubs and ready meal trays (without film lids)
• Clear fruit trays (without film lids)
• Clean meat trays (without film lids)

The project is part of the council’s 2023 election commitment to “push harder and faster to"..." get the carbon emission that is under the council's control to "net zero by 2030”. The previous council adminstration approved this plan for it, and, after it didn't go ahead, we altered it to increase the energy output. A lower-than-usual interest rate green investment loan will be used to fund it. The estimated return on investment is about  £2M per annum, with an assumed payback within 10 years. 

Whilst the scheme makes a big impact on the council’s goal of net zero by 2030, and is commercially sound, for me it's important for it to generate electricity that the council and/or the community consume directly.  I'm told that 'carbon offset' is a last resort means of reaching Net Zero. I remain sympathetic to Wokefield Parish Council’s position on this - that it shouldn’t have been commissioned on agricultural land and because Grazeley/Grazeley Green seems to have done its bit for solar farm supply already.

Each year,  district councillors usually have up to £5,000 each available to spend on community projects, provided the sum is matched by a parish council or other body.  This year I was pleased to support installing a water supply to Mortimer Fairground.  It will be used for fairground events (for example Fun Day) and to help watering the trees/plants there. Installation started in late April and is probably pretty much done by now.

West Berkshire is likely to adopt a new Local Plan, setting out how the district might develop over the next 15 years. Local Plans are meant to: define where new homes should go; specify how to protect the countryside; guide sustainable growth; and support local services/infrastructure.  The process worked like this: 

A planning inspector recently concluded that the submitted Plan is legally sound, albeit after modifications, and should be adopted. West Berkshire Council will consider doing so on 10 June.

Whilst there’s no housing allocated to this area, the Inspector called for a change to wording that deals with house building requests within AWE’s Detailed Emergency Planning Zones. Text that previously stated "any new development of a type …described in the table below located in the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone (DEPZ) of AWE Aldermaston and AWE Burghfield is likely to be refused planning permission by the Council, especially when the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and/or Ministry of Defence (MoD) have advised against that development and/or object" was replaced. The full changes are shown in "main modifications" page 5 section MM8

I don't think this means applications within the DEPZ will be approved - to me the revised text clarifies the circumstances in which they might, rather than implying that they never would. 

It's worth adding that the number of houses allocated within this plan does not take account of the additional country-wide "mandatory" housing targets issued by the Government in December 2024 - more HERE and HERE. West Berkshire Council, and others, objected to the scale of these proposals and awaits the Government's next move on them.

At an specially-convened council meeting on 1 May, Joseph Holmes who'd been acting as the interim following the departure of the Nigel Lynn in November 2024, was appointed Chief Executive.  Based on my experience of Joseph in action, I join colleagues, across the council, in support this appointment and the selection process. There's more on this HERE. 

On 8 May, beacons are being lit here and across the country at 21.30 to mark VE 80.  You will have your own thoughts and experiences.  My mind will turns to my dad's, as a wireless operator on the Vickers Wellington 'Wimpy'.  When I interviewed him once for radio, he said that on VE Day, he was in South Africa. Emotions that day were a mix of celebration and wondering whether he'd be deployed to the Far East. That never happended of course.  He's talked often of those who didn't come home and clearly never got over the experience.    I didn't fully realise how unreliable the plane were until I saw his log book. 

I'm pleased to report that the folks behind taking over  the Garth Club land and building, in line with the original benefactor's intent, have formed a Charitable Incorporated Organisation for the purpose. Their next move is to decide whether to repair or rebuild, and in the latter case seek planning consent for a design like this below.  More as we hear it..

Windmill Court

I’m expecting an update on my query to the case officer in our planning department on the application to redevelop the site.  The query relates to the age restriction. 

Local Electrical Recycling

Thanks to Jay, Mortimer’s new-ish parish council custodian, and Danielle, the new-ish Clerk, in support, the West End Road car park hedge is nicely cut back in preparation for the electrical recycling bin. The bin is provided and serviced by West Berks Council’s contractor. In Burghfield there's a similar bank in the Willink Leisure Centre car park.

I took a weekend off in February to be guest presenter on Radio Caroline, the pioneer of UK pop radio, on the River Blackwater. It was the first time I'd done so for 38 years. 

Despite being much closer to land now than it was in 1987 - then it was 20 miles offshore - the boat bobbed around quite a lot on the Sunday. 

One colleague said I sounded was like I'd never been away, and another Peter 'World Service' Phillips  commented "there aren't many jobs you can go back to after all these years, still less ones you'd want to". 

It was a truly memorable weekend and I hope to return. Meanwhile the event returns on 10 May, with this months guest Charlie Wolf from the revolutionary 80s station Laser 558.

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written by

Nick Carter

West Berks District Councillor - Burghfield and Mortimer

Fellow district councillors for Burghfield & Mortimer

• Vicky Poole, Portfolio Holder for Transformation and Corporate Services

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 07896 909 776

Vic's surgery: First Saturdays 10.00-11.30 Burghfield Library.

• Geoff Mayes.

Email: [email protected]