Councillor Stuart Gourley, Executive Member for Climate Action, Recycling and Biodiversity at West Berkshire Council, has recently been talking about the Council's work during the recent floods. You can watch the YouTube video here: West Berkshire Council - YouTube.
We've been working closely with neighbouring Councils, the Environment Agency, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Thames Valley Police, NHS, UK Health Security Agency and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to coordinate a multi-agency response to the floods across West Berkshire.
You can learn more about Keeping Safe and Well after a flood and the West Berkshire Council website also has flooding contact information, including local flood forums and emergency contact details.
(HEAT) Hungerford Environmental Action Team News
On The Buses for £2
Since 1 January 2023, passengers have been able to get on the bus for £2 (£4 return) and now the national single fare cap scheme has now been extended to 31 December 2024. Its intention is to provide affordable bus travel for everyone across England and you can travel any time of day. The list of participating operators can be found here.
We have also introduced the following service enhancements to help more people use the bus:
A new late evening service, operated by Newbury & District, between Newbury and Thatcham on Fridays and Saturdays called the 1e.
Reading Buses Lime 2a has been extended to serve Mortimer every 2 hours on Sundays.
Thames Travel’s X34 service now operates between Newbury and Harwell Campus/Didcot providing a link to employment and retail opportunities.
These service enhancements have been made possible by funding from HM Government, given to us after submission of a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) in October 2021.
To add to the improvements, the following tickets have been introduced:
An early bird concessionary fare ticket has been introduced, allowing those with a valid concessionary bus pass to travel for discounted rates before 9:30am Monday to Friday.
A Connect Group Day ticket is available allowing unlimited use for up to 4 people on valid routes.
There will be more announcements about your local bus services in the coming months so please look out for them.
The report shows our progress towards our goal of becoming net zero by 2030. Since the baseline year, we’ve reduced our emissions by 15%, which is positive, but we know there’s still a lot of work to be done!
As a Council, we’ve worked on a wide variety of projects from introducing weekly food collections and launching the Sustainable Business Directory to ‘Wild West Berkshire’ which helped children get outside and learn about nature and sustainability.
It also highlights some of the brilliant work that’s taken place across the district from schools and community groups, from spring planting, clothing swap shops to green weekends and beehive sponsorship!
The Corn Exchange Newbury and The Base Greenham are jointly presenting a Sustainability Fair at the Corn Exchange on Saturday 9 March From 10am to 5pm. Our Climate Change Service will also be in attendance with a stand to provide information to residents and highlight ways in which we can all engage in sustainable activities.
The aim of the Sustainability Fair is to bring together individuals and organisations, all with the common goal of finding a more sustainable way of living. Visitors will be able to share ideas about sustainability, connect with like-minded charities, organisations, and small business exhibitors at the forefront of greener living, and browse stalls who create sustainable products and services or work to better our understanding of being eco-conscious. Plus there will be food from the Café Bar!
The fair has been organised to coincide with the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year 59 exhibition, which runs at The Base Greenham from Friday 1 March to Sunday 14 April. This exhibition has been instrumental in raising awareness of the human impact on the planet and its wildlife.
Exhibitor spaces are currently available. Please contact the Corn Exchange Box Office on: boxoffice@cornexchangenew.co.uk or call: 01635 522733 for further information on booking a stand.
Newbury and Thatcham Repair Cafe opens its doors for the first time on Sunday 25 February 2024, 2pm to 4.30pm, at Newbury Methodist Church Hall, RG1 1AN. Please bring your items for volunteers to repair and join for a hot drink and biscuits. Repairs are free, but donations are very welcome to help fund future events.
The Repair Cafe will also be at the Frank Hutchings Community Hall in Thatcham, RG18 4QH, on Sunday 24 March 2024 from 10.00am to 12.30pm.
As well as the normal type of repairs such as electrical and electronic items, tool sharpening and other general repairs, one of the volunteers is offering a jewellery repair and cleaning service, e.g. missing hoops, clasps, and strings of beads, at the Newbury event on 25 February. There will also be a Quartz Watch Battery replacement service for all those watches that would otherwise be thrown away.
Repair Cafés are free meeting places and they’re all about repairing things (together). In Purley on Thames you’ll find expert volunteers from the community, with repair skills in all kinds of fields to help make the repairs you need. The next is on
Since 2021 when the Repair Café began there have been multiple fixes on clothes (new zips and buttons etc), furniture given a new lease of life, electrical appliances now working, countless bicycles fixed, along with crockery and toys having an extended life.
When items are repaired or refurbished this enables extra life and saves landfill, whilst saving money too.
Keep visiting: https://www.purleysustainability.co.uk/ for more information about Purley Sustainable Group, their events and how you can keep sustainability in mind.
TVERC Conference for the Biological Recording Community
One of the Council's partners, The TVERC (Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre) Spring Recorders’ Conference will take place on Saturday 16 March at Cholsey Great Hall. A great opportunity for the biological recording community to come together and share updates of projects, survey initiatives and information on what they are doing in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
Have you added any community projects onto the West Berkshire aDoddle map? It's a great free community group resource that allows community groups (and volunteers) to get in touch to learn from each others experiences.
West Berkshire Wild Verges – January Wildflower Focus
We're well into the New Year now, with days slowly lengthening we can see Snowdrops, Lords-and-Ladies, and Daffodils starting to emerge. The beginnings of Spring on our verges are very much here, even if the weather forecast doesn't quite agree yet.
This month begins the rounding-off of the Wild Verges Project: the final report is being sent to West Berkshire Council for their consideration. In it, we describe some thoughts to the twin crises of biodiversity and carbon storage loss through more sensitive management of verges. By first lowering soil fertility, and then reducing cutting, we will see more biodiversity and increased carbon storage capacity without verges having the ability to get overgrown and become a mess. The report discusses maintenance options and investments with the potential to save more in the future, with wider-reaching positive effects on biodiversity and carbon storage.
Keep an eye on those verges near you and see what pops up first. There are definitely some sheltered spots out there in the wilds of West Berkshire where the frost doesn’t bite as hard and things are definitely happening.
BBOWT want to help everyone to take action for nature. They have created Team Wilder Community Group Network which provides free training, online resources, publicity for groups on their web map and opportunities to learn from others’ experiences at monthly online meet-ups and Facebook group.
The next free, monthly online meet-up will be on Wednesday 7 February, 7-8pm. It will include a presentation from BBOWT’s Community Wildlife Officer, Barbara, all about house martins. To join this, or any future meet-ups, book your spot via their events page: www.bbowt.org.uk/events?type=1021
Are you part of a community group helping nature in your area? To find out more or subscribe to the monthly newsletter, please email: teamwilder@bbowt.org.uk
Team Wilder's next free, 'in person' training and networking event for Community Nature Groups from right across Berkshire is on Saturday 9 March 2024.
Dates for your diary
The Environment Advisory Group Open Forum will be taking place between 5pm and 6.30pm on Monday 29 January. There will be presentations on an exciting habitat creation project at Sulham Estate, Regenerative Farming, and an update on the West Berkshire Wildflower Verges Project.
Count your plastic for one week: 11-17 March 2024.
Schools in West Berkshire will be encouraged to take part as part of the Eco Schools programme to join with thousands of schools, households, community groups, businesses and individuals across the country who will be coming together to count their plastic waste. Why not use the following link to register to take part? Sign up | The Big Plastic Count
