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It is easy sometimes to focus on the nuisance trees create such as: dropping leaves, the light they can block out in summer and that one tree outside your house or flat that is home to a number of birds! But it is worth taking a moment to remember how much of a positive impact trees have on our streets. Urban trees have a huge value especially during the recent heatwave we experienced.
Just a couple of things to remember about trees and heatwaves. By strategically placing trees near buildings and around towns and cities, trees can help to cool the air by up to 8 degrees Celsius. Aside from the decrease in temperature, just adding trees to our streets and near our houses they help reduce our carbon emissions (and not just by storing the carbon we emit). For example, using proper placement of trees around buildings can reduce the need for air conditioning, reducing energy bills by as much as 30%. Trees don’t just do this in summer, during the winter they can help create a form of insulation reducing winter heating bills by around 35%. After reading this it may all seem obvious, but it is often taken for granted just how important our street trees really are.
WBC Tree Officers work closely together to protect the trees in our care, and are also responsible for the planting of trees. With global warming having such a massive effect on our climate, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep our saplings alive past the first few years from planting. We encourage anyone to help us water our young trees – thank you!
- Consider watering the newly planted trees close to where you live – that could be a street tree, or one on a bit of open space
- Water them during prolonged dry and windy conditions throughout the drier months
- Ideally continue watering trees for the first three years of planting
- Rain, tap and grey water are all acceptable
Two local parks have been awarded Green Flag Awards - an international accolade recognising well-managed parks and green spaces.
Northcroft and Goldwell Parks in Newbury received a Green Flag alongside Linear Park in Calcot. Both parks are managed by West Berkshire Council with the support of local volunteer groups.
After two years that have seen our parks and green spaces play a vital role for people through lockdowns as a place to relax, exercise and meet friends and family safely, the news of the two Green Flag Awards is testament to the hard work and dedication of the team and the volunteers that make these green spaces great places that everyone can enjoy.
You can find out more about the Green Flag awards online.
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Representatives from Year 6 collecting their certificate and £500 prize.
Children at Curridge Primary School are delighted to have been awarded second place in the Dorothy Morley Conservation Award and scooped a £500 prize!
Across the school, children have been busy throughout the year with their ‘Grow’ project. They’ve planted wildlife friendly gardens, planted, cared for and harvested vegetables, flowers and herbs for cooking, and written letters to 10 Downing Street about climate change offering their ideas to improve the environment for everyone.
Open to all Berkshire Schools, the Dorothy Morley Conservation Award offers prizes of £1000 and £500 for the two best school projects that promote environmental conservation in its widest sense.
Congratulations to everyone who took part.
 We want to showcase our fantastic environmental groups in the district, which is why we have partnered with aDoddle Community Mapping. This platform is a great way for groups to improve their presence online and allows residents to find their local group and volunteering opportunities.
Being connected with others in our community can make a real difference in all sorts of ways. We hope this allows us all to facilitate sharing, learning and help strengthen our climate action.
 New eCargo bikes are being offered to local organisations and businesses in the district to try out, supported by a successful bid for government funding.
We have three eCargo bikes available with airfreight-style cargo boxes These are eye-catching vehicles that can be branded with vinyl. You could use them for:
- Static / mobile promotion - indoors or outdoors, at summer fayres or events etc.
- Sale of goods or foods, where allowed, in streets or parks - one will be available with a cool box.
- Local last-mile of postcode area deliveries, in place of small vans, demonstrating a commitment to zero-carbon transport as they have a range of about 30 miles on one charge.
- Carriage of tools and equipment by trades' people.
These are classified as bicycles so no driving licence is required to ride them. Insurance is not compulsory, but we would recommend any business check that they have cover for employees and public liability etc. Businesses would be using them at their own risk and they need to be stored securely when not in use.
We require 2 working days' notice to take them out of storage from a central Newbury location. The eCargo bikes will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Familiarisation and information on use will be provided on pick up.
If you or your business would like to hire one out, please contact Alec Gore on: Alec.Gore1@westberks.gov.uk or our Environment Team on: Environment@westberks.gov.uk.
Use the Bus this Summer!
 Buses continue to provide a cost-effective travel solution for many, and we’ve made some improvements. So if you fancy getting out and about with your family or friends over the summer why not use the bus to get there.
The Council’s Connect Tickets offer a wide range of ticket options and from 1 August 2022 there will a Connect Group Day Ticket available for up to 4 people who wish to travel together on the bus. This can be any combination of adults and/or children. As with most Connect tickets, there are two types available:
- £10.00 for an Urban ticket
- £16.50 for a Rural ticket
For even better value, until the 4 September the Rural ticket will be only £15.00.
Other improvements made to the Connect buses (services 5, 5a, 5c, 41, 44, and 47) are:
- Service 5 to/from Brightwalton now operates throughout the year (not just schooldays)
- Service 47 has an additional afternoon journey from Lambourn on Saturdays and school holidays
- Contactless payment is now accepted on these routes
It may not be too late to give us your views on bus services in West Berkshire. Our annual bus survey now closes at midnight on Sunday 31 July 2022.
 Almond Avenue play area refurbishment
Did you know, West Berkshire Council own and manage 44 play areas across the district! The sites are inspected on a regular basis for safety and we also carry out routine maintenance where needed. Unfortunately some of our play areas suffer from vandalism and anti-social behaviour from time to time. You can report any damage via www.westberks.gov.uk/reportaproblem or by calling: 01635 551111. We realise the vast majority of play area users enjoy the spaces responsibly – thank you!
We have recently undertaken the refurbishment of one of our well-loved play areas in Theale and have a number of exciting projects on the horizon as well which are outlined below.
New multi-play unit installed at Meadow Way play area in Theale
We have just replaced the 20 year old play equipment with a new unit complete with slide and safer surfacing. The equipment here which includes a junior, toddler and basket swing plus two rockers, is for children aged 3-10 years.
Almond Avenue play area in Newbury
After a slight hold up in construction due to supply chain issues, works are due to resume at Almond Avenue, for completion in August.
This will be a highly inclusive destination play area in a beautiful setting beside the River Lambourn for children aged 2-8 years.
Mandarin Drive play area in Greenham
The equipment is planned to be upgraded in September with lots of exciting new activities for toddlers.
And finally, we have planned to install a new toddler swing unit at Northcroft, Newbury over the summer.
Keep your eyes peeled for more exciting developments in the months to come!
Get familiar with your local parks and green spaces as part of Love Parks week 29 July - 5 August 2022! Find out more here.
 If you are a new subscriber to the garden waste service or pay by credit/debit card you can now subscribe to the 2022/2023 garden waste service online here.
The subscription period will run from 29 August 2022 until 27 August 2023.
If you currently pay by Direct Debit we will have contacted you separately about renewing and you do not need to re-subscribe.
80% of plastic waste pollution passes through our rivers and streams on its way to the sea…. Let’s Blitz it!
From 17-25 September we will be supporting Thames 21’s PlasticBlitz community engagement initiative to help clean up plastic waste on land around our rivers, river banks, and catchment areas.
In West Berkshire we have several very rare Chalkstreams and Winterbournes such as the River Kennet, Lambourn, Enborne, Og, Dun and Foudry Brook, The River Pang, The Bourne and the Sulham Brook, plus the Thames at Pangbourne, all of which are susceptible to litter and its toxic effect on the environment and wildlife.
If you can help protect our native riverside wildlife by going on a ‘PlasticBlitz’ this September, please follow the steps below:
- Register your group’s interest with Action River Kennet (ARK, our River Catchment Host) by calling 01672 512700. Please provide your group name, contact details, the river nearest to where your group will collect litter and the litter pick date.
- Call our Waste team to borrow litter picker sticks and bin bags by visiting our webpage here.
- Before 28 August, registered groups can contact WBC Waste team to organise a location & date for picking up your collected river bank litter (near bridges and easy access points). Please quote 'PLASTICBLITZ' when contacting us via email: recycle@westberks.gov.uk
- Please follow your own Community Group’s Health and safety, insurance and liability guidelines. Community groups will not be expected to collect litter ‘data’ but if you wish to, ARK can send out a data sheet at registration.
- Submit your group litter pick name & any photos showing the number of rubbish bags collected to ARK anna@riverkennet.org by 1 October 2022.
Sue Halliwell, our Executive Director for Place, started a blog to track her journey towards becoming a net zero family! Have a look at the blog posts so far, including the newest one from Jon Winstanley, Service Director for Environment, who has written about his recent experience of purchasing solar panels for his house!
To help reduce energy bills, draughts and poor insulation can be fixed quite easily. Cllr Steve Ardagh-Walter is looking to form a voluntary group, provisionally named West Berkshire Draughtbusters, which would aim to find and fix draughts in homes occupied by elderly and vulnerable residents, and also to raise awareness so that many more people are equipped to improve their own houses.
Are you interested in energy saving and the environment, and would you be keen to make a difference across the community? We need both a core team who can set up the organisation, arrange training, publicity and work with other bodies; and also practical people who are willing to give some time to find and fix problems in homes. If you are able to help, please contact Cllr Steve Ardagh-Walter, via email steve.ardagh-walter@westberks.gov.uk and indicate whether you would like to be involved in the core group, as an individual problem fixer, or both.
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