OPINION: Letters to the editor of the Newbury Weekly News
Good feedback on our Old Town proposal
Thank you for your positive coverage in relation to our new Old Town redevelopment proposals for the outdated Kennet Shopping centre.
We were thrilled with the tremendously positive and enthusiastic response we have received from everyone who has visited the Old Town exhibition shop.
The members of the public were particularly excited and pleased with our proposals.
One of the elements that was discussed in some detail was night-time security and this will be secured with self-closing and opening electronic pedestrian gates as well as a significant number of well-placed, 24-hour monitored CCTV cameras, as well as regular night-time security patrols.
Please forgive me as we don’t want it to sound like it is a problem, it is just so we deter and avoid issues, given we are in the town centre and abut various pubs and leisure facilities.
We have received positive feedback from The Newbury Society and other interested individuals.
Whilst everyone seems to welcome and support the scheme, there are one or two areas where opinions differ.
But in themselves I don’t believe that these differences are sufficient to derail our proposals.
I have to particularly commend the councillors and other members of the public who put up with, and attended, two of the presentation sessions, and I am very grateful for their support.
On a more difficult subject, we have been asked what we are doing with the Eagle Quarter (3) scheme that was recommended for approval but subsequently refused on the 8th of January.
We have appealed this scheme as we believe that this scheme has merit, it was “strongly recommended” for approval as it conformed to both centre Government and West Berkshire’s adopted planning policies.
It is a completely different scheme but none the less a considerable amount of the people who I have met have said that they liked it and felt some regret that it was not going forward.
The Old Town planning application has been submitted, and we hope that those people who have been to the exhibition will continue to maintain their strong interest in seeing the scheme through to a positive outcome – information on the scheme is available on our website www.oldtownnewbury.com
Hugo Haig
Director, Lochailort
Thanks to the refuse and recycling staff
This week I took possession of a new wheelie bin.
The old one was circa 1986 so lasted for 37 years.
Back in the day one of your correspondents said they were a waste of money and wouldn’t last three years.
Congratulations then to WBC/Veolia, and while I’m on the subject the Veolia people (both the bin people and the staff at the Newtown recycling site are exemplary).
Thank you to them all.
Grahame Murphy
Chaddleworth
Press needs to give Starmer a fair chance
I know you like to print a wide range of views in your paper and are loyal to certain correspondents despite their tenuous hold on literary coherence.
Criticism of this Government is right and proper but the manner of the concerted onslaught by the predominantly right wing press in this country is of a piece with far right politics becoming ubiquitous throughout Western democracies.
Tabloids have always been a corrosive influence because of their lazy indifference to considered thought and love of the provocative headline, generating sound and fury while signifying nothing but hatred of the foreigner and more lately anything that might be labelled woke.
All power lies to its people, but there are degrees of disingenuousness and the last 14 years of Conservative rule reached new heights of brazen falsehoods.
Starmer deserves a fair chance at correcting the dreadful legacy of debt and run-down public services inherited from his predecessors.
Can you imagine Reform having the perseverance beyond their single issue manifesto to see through any kind of transformation in our country?
A truly chilling prospect.
Tom Brown
Gore End
Don’t stop district’s Mobile Library service
West Berkshire Council is due to discuss the future of the Mobile Library van on February 27.
The signs are that the council wishes to stop this service due to costs.
As a long-term user of the Mobile Library I hope the council will not stop the service.
I live in Beenham where we have hardly any public transport.
What little we had was cut by the recent changes introduced by West Berkshire Council.
This means that the direct bus service to Newbury which ran on Thursdays no longer exists.
Consequently the Mobile Library, which calls for 45 minutes once every six weeks, is an essential service and a real asset for those in the community who have no transport of their own and for those like me who prefer not to pollute the atmosphere any more than they have to by driving.
Parents and carers can also use it after they have collected their children from school.
The Mobile Library visits many nursery and primary schools across the district, including Welford & Wickham, Enborne, Great Shefford and Inkpen Primary Schools, and nurseries and pre-schools in Greenham, Newbury, Thatcham, Hermitage, Frilsham, Holybrook, Tilehurst, Compton, Englefield and Beenham.
I volunteer at a local primary school listening to children reading and I can testify to the nationwide concerns about literacy levels.
Many of the children I have worked with over the past decade were never read to by someone at home and their progress has been delayed as a result.
The impact the Mobile Library has on the young children at the schools it visits is absolutely invaluable, engendering a love of reading and an awareness that books are accessible and available to everyone.
For many older people the library is a lifeline, especially for those who live alone and for those who have no transport of their own.
In a village like Beenham where there is no shop, the van represents an opportunity for people to meet up and have a chat, which we value immensely.
The plan to stop the service is ageist as it discriminates more against older people, and the loss of the service would add to social isolation in villages such as ours.
Has an equality impact assessment been done?
I would hope that the council’s guidelines say that one should be done to ensure vulnerable people are not disproportionately affected.
I have heard that there is the possibility of us being able to reserve books online and then having them dropped off at our homes.
I wonder how much this would cost in a year compared with the cost of the regular mobile van service?
Have these costs been examined?
I have also read about ‘pop-up’ library services where a village hall, for instance, could be used.
Who would pay for the hire of the hall, the heating and lighting?
Again, has the potential cost across the district been compared to the cost of the van?
I understand that because of Government cuts our local councils are having to make savings but for the small amount which would result from stopping this service it seems a huge price to pay for the future of our area and its place in a world where culture and learning are of paramount value, especially in the current climate where anxiety and mental health issues are so dominant, as is the importance of keeping one’s mind active in order to reduce the onset of dementia.
Can the council really afford to make the villages of West Berkshire such a cultural and social wilderness?
Lesley McEwan
Beenham
See the destruction of Bucklebury Common
Upper Bucklebury is adjacent to about 2,000 acres of common land which is mostly heather and woodland.
It is enjoyed by walkers, riders and families enjoying a picnic etc.
In short it is a source of most enjoyable recreation.
However the whole common has been destroyed by the total destruction of the woodland.
It now looks like Armageddon.
Although Defra has set a benchmark requiring nine per cent of farming land to be converted into forests and wild habitats by 2050, they have given a grant to Bucklebury Estates to remove tens of thousands of the trees and to convert it into grassland where they intend to keep cows.
The common, although beautiful, has been neglected for decades, allowing silver birch, gorse and brambles to grow.
However, I am sure this could have been rectified by less drastic measures.
The total loss of the common has significantly impacted residents who now have to find somewhere else (probably by car) to walk, picnic and enjoy what was once a beautiful public area.
Moreover, the removal of the trees and natural habitats has displaced nesting birds (especially ground nesting ones) large and small animals and vital pollinators, especially bees which enjoy the heather.
Also they have destroyed a large area of wild orchids.
The loss of an established ecosystem will take decades to recover – if it is restored at all.
This project was implemented without consideration for the people of Upper Bucklebury and surrounding areas and the wildlife.
Lady Katrin Hoare
Upper Bucklebury
Planning application is unpopular in Highclere
A recent planning application to Basingstoke District Borough Council has resulted in an extraordinary number of objections from, principally, Highclere residents.
I live on Westridge and completely concur with the general feeling about the application.
Those NWN readers who are interested may like to visit the BDBC Planning portal and view Ref: 25/00109/PIP.
Perhaps they might enjoy a walk along Westridge to understand the damage that this proposal will do, culminating at our favoured pub, The Red House.
Sustained by a couple of pints, readers might add their voices to the objections lodged with BDBC.
Charles Pack
Highclere
