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Northcroft Lido is officially open!

We're delighted that Northcroft Lido is now officially open! We welcomed hundreds of excited visitors through the door on Monday ready for a fun filled afternoon. The new facility, which includes water slides, a splash pad and an olympic sized 50 metre swimming pool, entertained children and adults alike. 

The lido will be open until the end of September and you can book via the Everyone Active app, the Northcroft Leisure Centre website or by calling the centre on 01635 31199. 

Visitors can also pay on the day at the leisure centre but with sessions expected to be popular you could be turned away if the session is at capacity. It's best to book in advance to avoid disappointment.

Annual Electoral Registration Canvass 2023

A-Level results day

Congratulations to all our young people who received their A and AS level, T level and level 3 VTQs results last week. It’s been a super challenging time, but you made it through!

We went down to Little Heath School Sixth Form to catch up with the students receiving their results. We wish them, and all the young people in our district, the best of luck for the future. 

With over 1,500 members of staff corporately, plus additional members of staff working across our local schools and education settings, we're one of the largest employers in the area. There are lots of reasons to consider a career with us - from the wide range of services we provide to the training and benefits we offer.

Current vacancies include:

• Residential Child Care Officer
• Senior Technician
• Planning Solicitor

We are hosting a Return-to-Work Careers Fair at Shaw House on 6 September from 10am where we can help you match your skillset to local employment vacancies.

We're running the fair with local partners including the National Careers Service and other local employers such as Downe House to offer a wide variety of vacancies for you to discuss with the recruiting teams. There will also be local volunteering opportunities.

If you have any questions please get in touch.

Financial update

An action plan to reduce spending this year has been put in place as the Council continues to be affected by rising inflation, increasing customer demand and a challenging job market.

Spending reductions will be focused on internal measures with frontline services remaining available to the public and future spending prioritised towards supporting our most vulnerable residents.

Forecasts earlier in the year showed an £8.7m overspend by year-end but measures put in place already have reduced this to £6.3m. The ongoing benefits of this work together with new measures should deliver a break-even position by the year end.

Over the summer the Council has worked quickly to halt spending and put in place spending controls which include:

• Reviewing all recruitment activity to fill only the most critical vacancies this year
• Reviewing all spending and approving only that which relates to statutory services or which are otherwise unavoidable
• In particular, reducing the cost of agency workers

You can visit our website to read more about the action we are taking to deliver a break-even budget by the end of the year.

Our first Community Forum

Our first Community Forum was a resounding success with a strong attendance both in person and online. The evening focussed on the new sports provision at Faraday Road and was chaired by Janine Lewis, Executive Member for Culture, Leisure, Countryside, Public Health and Sport. You can watch the full forum back here and read the blog here.

We value your views on the decisions we take. There are several areas we are currently holding consultations on, including:

• West Berkshire Bus Survey 2023
• Hermitage Neighbourhood Plan
• Cold Ash Neighbourhood Plan

Football at Faraday Road update

The latest stage of preparations at Faraday Road took place last week which involved removing the dead thatch from the grass in a process called scarification. 

Overseeding is the next stage of the pitch preparation which will replace the dead material that has been removed with new, healthy grass.

In the last couple of weeks the utilities services have been trenched in, ready for the installation of a refurbished changing room module which is due to be delivered to the site later in September/October. 

You can find out more in our latest blog update.

Staying safe online workshop

Our Early Response Hub hosted a workshop for young people yesterday that gave them important information about staying safe online.

They were entertained by fun games and activities, and were very engaged with the interactive presentations given. The children and young people also knew lots about online safety already which was great to see.

The team hope to run more events across our district in the near future.

Click here to find out what else the Early Response Hub has to offer.

John Rankin School Legacy Project

The Legacy Project was created to give Year 6 children a chance to create a project for their school that would leave a legacy. They shared ideas, voted on the choices, managed a budget and completed the work. This encouraged them to work together and help prepare them for life at secondary school

Using funding from the legacy project, Year 6 children at John Rankin School chose to make an unused area of the playground a space for outside learning and a brighter area for children to use at playtimes.

The children created their designs which were then merged into the final mural. A small group worked on drawing the design on the wall before children from across the year group added to the painting.

To continue the development of this space in September, the new Year 6 classes will add to the painting on the areas either side of the mural.

Reading Festival travel this weekend

Reading Festival arrives in town this weekend and West Berkshire residents travelling into or around Reading town centre from Wednesday 23 August to Friday 25 August should expect delays as festival goers arrive. Roads will be extremely busy again on Bank Holiday Monday, 28 August.  Please remember there are no trains on Saturday due to planned industrial action. Reading station will also be closed from 7pm to 7am on Sunday 27 August.   Reading Borough Council have worked with the festival organisers, Festival Republic to produce travel information and have provided more information here.

Newbury job fair

A jobs fair in Newbury next month will provide information about job and training opportunities available locally. The event will bring together employers and organisations that are able to offer work and training opportunities with local people who are seeking employment, a change of career or career advice. We will be attending the event to talk about careers with West Berkshire Council, alongside other organisations from a wide range of sectors - from health and social care to construction, banking, telecoms, retail and hospitality. Other local employers attending including Vodafone, Metro Bank, AWE and Sovereign Housing. It’s been organised by Laura Farris, MP for Newbury, with the support of Newbury Jobcentre Plus. West Berkshire Council are delighted to help by making Northcroft Leisure Centre available as the venue for the event. The event will take place on Thursday 28th September from 10am until 1pm. Admission to the jobs fair is free, but places must be booked for a specific timeslot via email or by calling 01635 551070.

And finally...

• Wishing all our young people the very best of luck for tomorrow’s GCSE results. We hope they get the results they want and need after all their hard work!
• A quick reminder that bins will still be collected on Bank Holiday Monday.