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We all produce food waste whether its egg shells, tea bags or peelings. Food waste can be placed in your food waste caddy or purple wheelie bin which will be collected weekly and turned into a soil conditioner which is used by local farmers on their fields. Since we started the weekly food waste collections on 31 October 2022 we have collected over 1,000 tonnes of food waste! Please remember only to use compostable liners to line your food waste caddies.
However, cutting down on avoidable food waste will save you money and is good for the environment too. Below are some suggestions on how to reduce food waste:
- Make a meal plan with a shopping list before you go shopping.
- Eat your food in date order and check if you can freeze items you might not eat in time.
- Measure portions before cooking to avoid cooking too much food.
 We are backing Keep Britain Tidy’s #bigbagchallenge to help ‘Spring Clean’ Britain.
This year’s mass campaign, from 17 March to 2 April 2023, calls on families, neighbours, friends and colleagues to join forces and pledge to pick a bag of litter from local areas in order to protect our communities and precious wildlife habitats.
If you are organising a community clean-up event for The Great British Spring Clean, we can provide litter-picking equipment to help you carry out your event. Please give us as much notice as possible when requesting equipment and wait for confirmation before you advertise your event as our equipment may not be available due to popular demand. To request equipment please visit: www.westberks.gov.uk/communitylitterpick
Pledge to get involved today at: www.keepbritaintidy.org/gbspringclean and support the campaign on social media with the hashtag #GBSpringClean and #BigBagChallenge
 Fly tipping, which can range from a small single bag to an entire truck load of rubbish, is a blight on the countryside and costs tax payers’ money to clear this up. In 2022, there were 966 incidents of fly tipping reported to us, which amounted to 136 tonnes of waste.
Let's SCRAP fly tipping. Don’t be afraid to ASK questions of anyone removing YOUR waste. Legitimate businesses will answer them.
- Where are they taking YOUR waste?
- What is their waste carrier’s license number?
- What are their contact details?
If you don’t ask the right questions, you could be fined if YOUR waste is fly tipped.
We are inviting residents and businesses across West Berkshire to take part in our draft Local Transport Plan survey. We are interested in your views on our proposed priorities and objectives to improve transport facilities and travel options.
As a Local Authority, we have a statutory duty to publish a Local Transport Plan (LTP). We have been developing our new LTP in parallel with the emerging Local Plan and taking into account the challenges and opportunities we face today with providing a modern transport system for West Berkshire.
Our draft LTP focusses on the following priorities:
- creating places for people
- providing sustainable access for all
- decarbonising transport
- supporting sustainable growth
You can read about the proposed objectives to help deliver these priorities, find out more and take part in the consultation here. The consultation closes on 22 March.
 If you’ve got a passion for cycling and enjoy working with children and young people, then this is the job for you! We’re looking for enthusiastic cyclists keen to qualify as instructors to deliver our Bikeability programme throughout the district.
To find out more about this fantastic opportunity then visit: www.bikeability.org.uk/professionals/for-instructors or email us at: ActiveTravel@westberks.gov.uk
 We have supported local community transport in a variety of ways for many years, recognising the vital service they provide to local residents. Alongside providing annual grants to local groups to support them with running their operations, the Council has also provided additional funding on a regular basis to assist groups with infrastructure projects like purchasing a new vehicle, installing a CCTV system or procuring new booking software.
Recently we assisted the Volunteer Centre West Berkshire (VCWB) to purchase a vehicle to expand their offering to passengers in the Newbury and Thatcham areas. They launched the ‘book-a-bus’ dial-a-ride service last year, and the additional vehicle is being used to provide additional essential trips, including shopping to local retail centres. This year’s fund will support Downland Volunteer Group’s desire for a wheelchair-accessible electric minibus. Downlands have never before been able to offer trips for wheelchair-bound passengers, and the vehicle will also improve accessibility for those with other mobility difficulties. They will be the first community transport group in Berkshire with a zero-emission minibus, and one of only a handful of groups to have achieved this across the UK. You can find out more about Community Transport in West Berkshire here.
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Low maximum bus fares will continue across West Berkshire until at least the end of June 2023. Bus journeys across West Berkshire are capped at £2 for a single journey and £4 for a return journey. So why not use the bus to get to work/school, go shopping, attend an appointment, go for a bite to eat in the local eateries, take in some of the outstanding scenery, or meet friends and family. The full list of those taking part in West Berkshire can be found here.
There will be more announcements about fares on your local buses in the coming months so do look out for them.
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On Saturday 21 January, local residents, councillors and staff members turned up on a frosty cold morning with their gardening gloves and spades to help plant a new community orchard in Shaw Park, Newbury.
The green space site at Poplar Place/Almond Avenue, which is owned by us, is a popular open space for recreational use with play areas and space for dog walking. The orchard site is not used for a specific purpose and is large enough to create an orchard whilst leaving sufficient open space.
Volunteers planted 25 different varieties of fruit trees including apples, pears, cherries and plums. The orchard will be of benefit to the whole community, including nearby residents and organisations such as the Scouts and Dingley’s Promise based in Poplar Place, as well as visitors to the area who can take advantage of the fruits growing for their own personal use. We will have signs up explaining what fruit varieties have been planted, when they are ready for harvesting, and how they can be used.
So many people worked hard behind the scenes so big thanks to the Countryside team who organised everything! Wessex Woodland Management Ltd supplied the trees and designed the orchard, our grounds maintenance contractor, Continental Landscapes Limited dug the tree pits, and our waste contractor, Veolia, provided the soil conditioner which is made from the food and garden waste that we collect from households within the district.
This is such a great example of what can be achieved by working together and everyone involved should be very proud.
Take a look at how the Orchard has come together here: https://youtu.be/R6kfSbffla4
Active Travel – partnership work with Sustrans, Burghfield
Path improvement works carried out by Sustrans with support from West Berkshire Council, Burghfield
We have assisted the sustainable transport charity, Sustrans, to deliver improvements to a stretch of traffic-free path in the Burghfield area.
The Council advocated for, and strongly supported, the proposals to remediate a 1.25km section of path that forms a key part of National Cycle Network route 4, paralleling the Kennet & Avon corridor, between the southern end of Mill Lane, Burghfield and Hissey’s Bridge, south of Calcot.
The upgraded path section, completed just before Christmas 2022, features a sealed surface, making access easier for people on foot, cycling or wheeling. It addresses previous problems with water ponding on the pitted surface.
The Council is actively engaged with Sustrans and other partners including Canal & River Trust, to progress other upgrades along National Cycle Network route 4 and has provided assistance to enable scheme development.
 Following the devastating floods of 2007 when around 1,200 homes in and around Thatcham were flooded, we've been working in partnership with a number of agencies, local stakeholders and businesses to ensure that Thatcham is better protected from possible future flooding.
So far, construction work has been completed at Cold Ash Hill, Tull Way, Floral Way and South East Thatcham, protecting 913 properties from the impact of flooding via our Flood Alleviation Scheme.
The next phase of the scheme will involve the construction of three flood attenuation ponds at Bowling Green Road, Heath Lane and East Thatcham. Initial works for these three areas have commenced and involve vegetation clearance and the construction of entrances into each site.
The main construction project is scheduled to start in April 2023. Once completed, this will protect another 107 properties from the impact of surface water flooding.
Read more about the scheme on our website.
 Do you own a hospitality business? Or know someone who does? If so, our Environment and Economic Development teams are running a Sustainable Hospitality Webinar on Wednesday 1 March at 5:15pm.
The webinar will focus on bringing together experiences from those already on their journey to become more sustainable, so that others can learn directly from them.
Andy Kershaw, Director of Property at Marstons, will be giving the perspective from a national chain, and Colline from Colline’s Kitchen will be talking about her experience as a local independent café owner and caterer. Topics will include energy, transport, supply chain, funding, and the lessons learnt from navigating these areas.
To book your place on the webinar, please register here. This will be a live session on our YouTube Channel.
 Over the last 2 years, we've been working to promote our local sustainable businesses by creating digital magazines for our residents to encourage more sustainable shopping locally.
We have also held webinars with a selection of businesses to promote their ways of working and give advice to others on how they can reduce their carbon footprint.
We want to make sure those businesses we have worked with are permanently in view for everyone and that’s why we’ve created a sustainable business directory on our website where you can find more information on those green businesses.
If you are a sustainable business and would like to feature on the page, simply drop an email to: chloe.guo1@westberks.gov.uk explaining what your business does and how it is eco-friendly along with an image.
 At the end of 2021 we were approached by residents of Hawthorne Way, Great Shefford. The residents wanted to improve two areas of nearby Council-owned land. The land was unused and the local community had a vision to enhance them for the benefit of everyone living locally and the wildlife! On 3 February 2022, the ‘Hickson Hedgerows’ community group in Great Shefford was established. We were very pleased to support this project which gave the local community the opportunity to manage their own local environment with assistance from Great Shefford Parish Council.
The project was named ‘Hickson Hedgerows’ in memory of long time Great Shefford residents, Jean and Lister Hickson who lived in the village for over 30 years and were very much at the heart of the community. The couple loved gardening and bee keeping.
The group has only been in operation for just over a year; but what a year they have had! Their season by season update is below:
Spring 2022
- Hedge laying workshop and hedge laid at the ‘Square’, providing an excellent wildlife habitat.
- Three ‘Blossom into spring’ cherry trees were planted and two perennial flower borders were created.
- The ‘Hickson Hedgerows’ Facebook page was created.
Summer 2022
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- The Bug Hotel was installed and nearly 100 children from the Under-fives group and local school have visited. Each class ‘furnished’ a floor of the hotel!
- Both sites were ‘flower bombed’ by the craft club as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations
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Autumn 2022
- Over 3,240 bulbs were planted including Snowdrop, Wood anemone, Bluebell, Wild Daffodil and Yellow Rattle seeds sown
Winter 2022
- A native hedgerow was planted to form an ecotone (an area of transition between habitats) between the balancing pond and the grass. This used 140 whips (small trees) including Acer Campestre (field maple), Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorne) and Viburnum opulus (guelder rose).
- On 7 January 2023 a small community orchard was planted on the ‘square’ consisting of two apple, two pear, plum, mulberry, medlar and green gage. This area has been named the ‘Platinum Jubilee Community Orchard.’
Reviewing the last year, a spokesperson for the group said:
‘It has been hard work getting the group off the ground but very rewarding. It has been wonderful to see the community come together and most of the initial ideas have now been implemented. It is hoped that the sites will be an asset to the village and create ongoing opportunities for further community activities such as a bat survey, fruit picking, wild flower sowing and further perennial planting.’
Jo Watt, Countryside Officer at West Berkshire Council, said:
‘It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the Hickson Hedgerows community group over the last year. The groups’ achievements are significant and the result of good communication, patience and most importantly the will of the community to improve the place where they live’.
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