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We're working hard to continue delivering services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and to support our residents - and in particular those who most need our help.
On our website you will find information about where to find support as well as details of any changes we've had to make to services.
You can also keep in touch with us online, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Back in May and early June, we released a survey for residents to complete about the impact that COVID-19 was having on your health, finances and the environment.
We now have some preliminary data that has been analysed from the 3,300 responses we received and will be used to inform our Recovery Strategy for the district.
Among the key findings was:
- Awareness of the Community Support Hub was fairly high, at 72%.
- Almost all respondents who were able to work from home intend to continue to do so and even more in the future.
- 31.9% reported a fall in household income.
- 63.7% indicated they intended to visit local high streets either the same as before, more or much more when allowed to do so.
- 15.3% of respondents believe that someone in their household has been infected with Covid-19.
- 18% of respondents reported high or very high anxiety levels the days before they completed the survey.
This survey was the first of what will be a series of resident engagement exercises planned by the council as part of its Covid-19 recovery work.
Read more about the how we will use the data from this survey on our website.
We know that Covid-19 has had a major impact on individuals and communities across our district and will continue to do so for some time.
Therefore, we have published our draft Recovery Strategy, which will be considered by Councillors at Executive on 16 July. The draft strategy focuses on how we will help the community recovery as quickly as possible from the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak mainly around three core elements - health, education and the local economy.
The draft strategy highlights how we will aim to work with our partners to improve the quality of life of all of those who live or work in the district.
You will have heard in the news that reporting the numbers of cases of COVID-19 is now calculated differently. Our Public Health team have been working closely with Public Health England on the data and we thought it might be useful for our residents to understand the picture across the district.
As of Thursday 9 July there have been 474 lab confirmed cases of coronavirus in West Berkshire, an increase of 3 cases since last week. This figure includes testing results from pillar one (swab testing in Public Health England [PHE] labs and NHS hospitals for those with a clinical need, and health and care workers) and pillar two data (swab testing for the wider population, as set out in government guidance).
The coronavirus infection rate of 299 in West Berkshire is lower than the regional average (South East) of 372.6 and the national rate of 442.
Rates are calculated by the amount of confirmed cases for each area divided by the total population and multiplied by 100,000. Rates are used to compare different areas and account for different population sizes.
From Monday 13 July, Newbury, Hungerford and Thatcham Libraries will be open for pre-arranged book collections during limited opening hours. You will be able to use the normal reservations service for specific titles, or our new Order & Collect service to tell us about the sort of books you like to read. Library staff will then hand-pick a selection of titles for you (up to a maximum of five), according to your requirements, and we will let you know when you can collect them. With Order & Collect we aim to choose books that you will enjoy reading and perhaps introduce you to some new authors.
How to order
Please complete our short online order form to tell us what you like. You will need your library membership card number and PIN. You can find an order form on our catalogue: https://westberks.spydus.co.uk.
Alternatively, please telephone your local library during office hours and we will place your order for you when you tell us what you want to read. Please have your library card ready when you ring. Contact details for all West Berkshire Libraries are available on our website.
Please note that this service is currently limited to individual books and audiobooks only. We are not able to take reservations or orders for DVDs or for book group sets at the moment.
We’re disappointed to announce that Northcroft Lido will remain closed this summer.
Covid-19 has caused delays to repair work and means we are unable to open this lido for the 2020 season. Northcroft Lido is an incredibly popular destination in the hot summer months and we’re as disappointed as anyone not to be able to open it this year. Find out more about why we’ve taken this difficult decision.
From solar energy and active travel projects to a new investment scheme, we're working hard to look after our environment. You can now sign up for our environment newsletter to stay informed about what's going on across West Berkshire.
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