OPINION: Letters to the editor of the Newbury Weekly News
Public just don’t want more pedestrianisation
West Berkshire Council has asked the Department for Transport (DfT) for permission to approve an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) to extend the pedestrianisation of central Newbury from 5pm until 11pm.
Was the council justified, in the first place, to proceed with the request to the DfT for an ETRO? I think not.
Let me explain:
On their website, West Berks have a ‘Consultation and Engagement Hub’ on which they publish proposals for such things as this ETRO.
They invite the public to express their views, and more importantly, to vote Yes/No on the proposals.
The results of this consultation have just been published. Voting was as follows:
2,487 responses
36.7 per cent in favour
58.5 per cent against
4.8 per cent neutral
So a significant majority, (nearly 60 per cent) have said: “No thank you. Let’s keep things as they are.”
I quote from the entry on the engagement hub re this ETRO: “In order to make an ETRO, we must apply to the Secretary of State for Transport and show that our proposal is supported by the local community.” (My italics).
In other words, evidence for local support for the ETRO would be a prerequisite for making the application.
Except, voting has shown that there isn’t support for the ETRO.
So the council, in my view, were not justified in applying for the ETRO.
We hear a lot these days about democracy being under threat – and little wonder.
At least here in West Berkshire it would seem to be very much in short supply.
I would respectfully request that the witless mandarins in West Berks remove the cotton wool from their ears, listen to the views expressed by Newbury residents and cancel the implementation of this ETRO.
Richard Howell
Newbury
Cricket match in memory of John King
It is no surprise that there have already been several tributes honouring the legendary schoolmaster John King, the former history teacher who graced the teaching staff of St Bartholomew’s School for 48 years and inspired countless pupils with his passion for his subject.
Beyond his teaching role John was a lay preacher at St Michael’s and All Angels Church at Enborne and also for many years he was connected to East Woodhay Cricket Club as an umpire before becoming president of the club for a number of years.
It is with this in mind, a memorial cricket match will be played in honour of his name between the club and an invitation team made up of former St Bartholomew’s old boys.
The match on Sunday, April 27, at the Malverleys Ground starting at 2 30pm will feature the presentation of a bench, bearing an appropriate inscription, to the club during the tea interval from the old boys.
Both teams would like to extend an invitation and warm welcome to any spectators who would like to enjoy a special occasion whilst paying their respects to a remarkable man.
Michael (Mike) Hart
Westgate Road, Newbury
We have to beware US-style factory farming
Thanks to Angela and Graeme McFarlane (Newbury Weekly News, April 3) for their well-argued letter on the plan for industrial chicken farming at Marsh Benham.
To prosper we’re told we need industrial growth, so Keir Starmer wants to get a trade deal with the USA; perhaps to save us from even more penal tariffs, perhaps just to shore up the mythical ‘special relationship’.
But we can always expect some price to be demanded by the hoodlum in the White House; even chlorinated chicken meat coming to our shops?
No, we are told constantly that UK standards of food production are so much higher – but here we have plain evidence that giant agribusiness has been working for years to spread factory farming across the country.
With all the threat it brings of pollution and disease, and with weak regulation by government; Marsh Benham is already infested by flies, but if it’s not stopped agribusiness will bring even bigger barns and bigger problems.
And as the McFarlanes point out, the farm is next to the River Kennet floodplain, so we can expect water pollution like that described by Chris Thompson’s letter about Winterbourne in your same issue.
We are busy developing factory farming just like big brother USA, where it’s so toxic that to kill the bugs, chicken meat has to be chlorinated.
If that’s to your taste, you could soon find it in the shops home grown.
Andy Wallace
Chandos Road, Newbury
Have your say on future of North Wessex Downs
By the end of this month, the public’s one chance to comment on a new five-year Management Plan for three quarters of West Berkshire and the best of our surrounding countryside will be over.
Google “North Wessex Downs 2025 consultation” and you will see what the small team based outside Hungerford, who work to see that this landscape is protected, believe needs doing.
The plan covers the remainder of this decade.
A lot has changed since the last Management Plan for what was then called an ‘AONB’ (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) was approved.
Legally that’s still its proper name and ‘National Landscape’ is just a rebranding for the family of 35 English AONBs.
The removal of ‘Nature’ and its replacement with ‘National’ is significant.
Nowhere in Britain is all natural.
Our countryside has been managed by humans for millennia; people who care for nature but also recognise that we are all part of nature.
The North Wessex Downs are a patchwork of heritage, reflecting how local people have used what nature provides to meet the needs of society.
The land – soil, water, air and plants – feeds us, delights us, keeps us healthy and yet has to change as human society changes.
The duty of all to ‘protect and enhance’ doesn’t mean preserving everything as it is.
Climate change means we and everything in it must adapt.
But ‘how?’ is the big question this plan tries to answer.
In the two years since I was given the honour of being West Berkshire Council’s representative on the North Wessex Downs Partnership, I have learned a lot about the people who live and work there.
Farmers have had a raw deal from Government and are in the front line of the climate and ecological emergencies.
They understand those twin challenges better than anyone in Whitehall, for whom the ‘F’ in ‘Defra’ doesn’t stand for farming but for food – from anywhere that’s cheap to put on our supermarket shelves – and not usually Best of British farmers’ produce.
So we want to hear from everyone who cares about our North Wessex Downs countryside.
The answer to everything in life is in the soil.
One way or another, we are made from soil.
Let’s not force farmers to destroy it.
To learn more and then give them your views, they are planning webinars in the latter half of April.
Their website www.northwessexdowns.org.uk will give details.
Meanwhile the draft plan is already there.
Dr Tony Vickers
Liberal Democrat councillor for Hungerford and& Kintbury ward
Vice chairman
West Berkshire Council and North Wessex Downs National Landscape (AONB) Council of Partners
Harry and Meghan should lose Royal titles
As I have said before, I’m no fan of the Royals.
So Charles has gone back to work, but I don’t find walking about talking to people and shaking hands is work.
I find people crowd by the hundreds, but those at the back can’t see them or hear what they say.
It’s about time Charles took the titles away from Harry and Meghan as they are no longer in the Royals or in Britain.
They are making money out of something they are not.
It seems just because he is Charles’ son he should be allowed to keep it, but his father doesn’t have the guts to do it.
I see in The Sun newspaper that he has come back to claim security from the British tax payer.
Let Charles pay for it if he doesn’t take the title away.
Keith Haines
Poplar Place, Newbury
