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Read all this and more in this month's newsletter.
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Nature not only benefits our planet but also our health. Research has shown that spending time outside in nature has a positive impact on our health, both physically and mentally which is why West Berkshire Council has a project dedicated to this - Nature for Health.
The main aims of the project are to deliver nature-based activities which promote and improve physical and mental health and wellbeing whilst reducing isolation and loneliness across West Berkshire.
We currently have a community garden set up at Shaw House where we have weekly drop-in sessions. This is a great opportunity to learn new skills, share skills and meet new people whilst getting all the benefits of being outside in nature. The session runs Thursday mornings 10am until 12:30pm at Shaw House.
To find out more or to get involved please contact Amy our Nature for Health Project Support Officer Support Officer amy.bosley1@westberks.gov.uk
Are you worried about paying your energy bills?
HUG2 is a new Government grant scheme to fund energy-saving upgrades for residents with off-grid gas heating systems who are most likely to be impacted by the high cost of energy bills. This could help you to use less energy, reduce your carbon footprint and spend less on your energy bills. HUG2 funding will be available until March 2025.
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Eligibility Criteria
The Home Upgrade Grant Phase 2 (HUG2) is open to home-owners and private tenants who meet all of the following 3 criteria:
- Homes not heated by mains gas which includes oil, coal, LPG or only electric heating.
- Households with a combined annual income of less than £36,000 (from April 2024) OR receiving certain income-related means-tested benefits such as Universal Credit OR you live in an Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) area.
- Hard to heat homes – this is based on your home Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). You will be helped with this part of the assessment and receive a free EPC assessment if you do not have one already.
(Landlords, who have four or fewer properties, will be able to apply and will be required to contribute at least one third of the cost of the upgrades in addition to the funding provided. This will be agreed before work begins).
How will the grant help?
You may be offered energy saving improvements and these could include:
- Insulation and ventilation upgrades
- A low carbon heating system
- Heating controls
- An energy efficient hot water solution
- Solar panels (PV)
- Energy efficient lighting
You can apply via: hugapply.co.uk/ or by calling Agility Eco on 0800 107 8883
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Greener Greenham Group is a small group of volunteers who help to improve their locality for wildlife and people.
Taking care of our local environment
The group litter-pick, plant trees and bulbs and maintain planted verges. In just 4 years they have secured grants to allow 40 residents to plant trees in their front gardens; planted over 30 trees in community spaces and planted 14,000 bulbs. They have also cleared a lot of litter.
Keeping saplings adequately watered in summer is challenging, and dealing with vandalism can be difficult; but Greener Greenham Group members are determined to improve their local environment for everyone!
Currently Greener Greenham Group has a working party on the first Saturday of the month at 1.30pm.
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Your new on-demand bus service has begun, called West Berkshire Community Connect it connects the Northwest Downlands area with Newbury.
Choose where you'd like to go and when, and we'll plan a journey to suit you! Trips must to be pre-booked via the passenger App, telephone, or by email. As well as the bookable service, which will replace the current timetabled service 5/5a/5c operated in-house, we also run two timetabled services between Brightwalton and Newbury. On schooldays, this include a service to Newbury College, St Barts and Park House.
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This exciting new service has been made possible by funding from HM Government, given to West Berkshire Council after submission of a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) in October 2021.
West Berkshire Countryside Society has been working with Bucklebury Estate on Bucklebury Common for several decades. Action has been very successful in terms of its positive impact on the floral and faunal assemblages of a rare lowland habitat. Nightjars, woodlarks and stonechats have all returned to breed on the heath, and there are many invertebrates thriving amongst the heather and gorse.
The volunteers help to maintain and restore the heathland areas, (both natural and historical features), to enhance the area for the public's enjoyment. Volunteer activities include removing invasive birch and Scots pine that threaten the open habitat; clearing trees from Medieval pillow mounds (man-made rabbit warrens created in the 13th century by monks from Reading Abbey); and ‘haloing’ veteran trees within the woodland to reduce competition from surrounding vegetation and give them a better chance of long-term survival.
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West Berkshire Council is once again supporting Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean.
This year’s campaign, which takes place from 15 March to 31 March, 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, West Berkshire Council can provide litter-picking equipment to support 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.
For more information please visit: www.westberks.gov.uk/communitylitterpick.
Please note equipment is fully booked over the weekend of 23/24 March. Equipment is available all year round. Pledge to get involved today at www.keepbritaintidy.org/gbspringclean and support the campaign on social media with the hashtag #GBSpringClean.
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Repair Cafés are where you can get help repairing your things.
Visitors bring their broken items from home and work along with the volunteers to learn how to repair them.
If you have nothing to repair, you can still enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, or maybe lend a hand with someone else’s repair job!
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Newbury and Thatcham Repair Cafe are looking forward to holding their first event in Thatcham at the Frank Hutchings Community Hall, RG18 4QH on Sunday 24 March from 10a.m. to 12.30p.m.
Their skilled volunteers will be ready and waiting for your items needing repair. Repairs are free, but donations are very welcome to help fund future events. Coffee and tea are also available. The volunteers have a wide range of repair skills. They ask that visitors bring only 1 item each for repair. Items can be brought in for repair until 30 minutes before the end of the event.
They are looking forward to repairing electrical items, such as toasters and kettles; electronic gadgets; garden tools; clothes and textiles and other general repairs such as crockery and toys. The item should be portable by one person. Scissors, secateurs and blades can also be sharpened. Sorry but they can’t repair microwaves, petrol-driven items and gas appliances for safety reasons.
The emphasis is on repairing (if feasible) and prolonging the life of an item to reduce waste and save money too, but please don’t expect the team to upcycle a piece of furniture or alter a complete dress!
If in doubt as to whether the item is suitable to bring for repair, please email NewburyThatchamRepairCafe@gmail.com
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Wednesday 6 March, 1-4pm – University of Reading (Central Berks)
Thursday 14 March, 5:30-8:30pm – Crown Estate Windsor (East Berks)
Monday 18 March, 11am-2pm – Wasing Estate (West Berks)
Who is it for?
Anyone involved in managing land in Berkshire such as farmers, foresters and landowners who are interested in finding out what opportunities the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) brings, and how you can get involved.
The sessions will be supported by independent facilitators from Just Ideas, and will be interactive with a range of presentations, small group discussions and activities, and of course tasty refreshments! Local Nature Recovery (LNR) can cover travel expenses to get to the sessions from within Berkshire.
What you’ll do at the LNR workshops:
- Find out more about the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy, and how being involved can support the work you do, and help you access funding.
- Hear from BioCap about their work in West Berkshire supporting farmers and landowners to benefit from the Biodiversity Net Gains (BNG) initiative.
- Celebrate great work being done locally combining nature recovery with other ways of working or managing land.
- Put forward your priorities for land and nature, and discuss opportunities to support and resource these priorities.
- Network, inspire, and be inspired by others working with land locally
- Enjoy some free food and refreshments!
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LNR will be hosting further events in April for Community Groups and Residents, please sign up to our mailing list to hear about these.
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The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) manages West Berkshire Council's commons, country parks and nature reserves. You can read all their latest news online.
This month, we're looking at more of the outputs of this West Berkshire Wild Verges Project.
As part of the legacy of the project, we have revamped the network of Roadside Nature Reserves (RNR) to help preserve some of the most special rural verges out there. West Berkshire Council designated 37 of these sites back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were notified for being of very high biodiversity and a distinctive habitat, such as Chalk Downland or Lowland Meadow. Sadly, over the past 30 years, many of these sites have degraded significantly. We reassessed these sites as part of our project, removing some designations where verges are degraded beyond help, and allocating new ones where we found areas of very high biodiversity or remnant distinctive habitats.
These sites are spread across West Berkshire, with some really interesting flora and fauna. One section, of only 100m or so, there were 46 different species of plant, with 7 being indicators of valuable grassland habitats. There were also 8 different species of butterfly, 6 different bees and as many different grasshoppers and crickets. These little pockets will be encouraged to flourish and spread through more sensitive management. A map will be available in the coming weeks so that you can find your nearest RNR and see what incredible things are growing.
It's not just the RNRs, of course. Now that spring is fast approaching, Lesser Celandine, Daffodils, Crocuses and more are all starting to brighten our gardens and verges. Keep an eye out for them on a verge near you, as well as the first butterflies and bees of the year - there are some Brimstone and Red Admirals out already!
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There’s lots going on at Thatcham’s Nature Discovery Centre this March. For both young and old alike, there are opportunities to get better acquainted with nature.
Do you currently, or want to lead a Community Group? Join us to develop your skills and confidence in leading Community Groups.
‘Leadership skills’ workshop – 10.30am-3pm on Friday 1 March – A free day-workshop for community groups in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire.
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We have two bird walks booked in for March, with one around the Nature Discovery Centre and another through the surrounding Thatcham Lakes. Both are gentle walks, with the option for regular breaks and there will be plenty of refreshments available to buy from the café. We will look for our fascinating winter migrants and all year residents.
Nature Discovery Centre Bird Walk – 10.30am-12.00pm on Wednesday 13 March
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Bird Walk Around Thatcham Lakes – 2.00pm - 4.00pm on Sunday 17 March
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Did you spot Kerbo Charge featured on BBC's Dragons' Den in February?
We announced last November that West Berkshire Council are part of a trial that could revolutionise how residents without a driveway can charge their electric vehicle from home. This innovative trial uses a through-pavement channel where residents insert their charging cable into the channel that has a self-closing lid that closes behind like a zip. Manufactured in the UK by Kerbo Charge. Feedback from the installers, residents, public and highways maintenance will be gathered and analysed. Updates will be available on the WBC On-Street EV Charge Point webpage over the coming months.
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The Big Plastic Count is back for 2024.
Count your plastic for one week: 11-17 March 2024
Join thousands of schools, households, community groups, businesses and individuals across the country who will be counting their plastic waste for one week.
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Earth Day is on 22 April and the 2024 theme is planet vs. plastics.
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