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Our Environment roadmap (which you can see here) highlights a yearly snapshot of the achievements across the district in 23/24.
There have been some significant milestones achieved with projects over the last year. The roadmap demonstrates the Council’s focus on helping to provide ways in which individuals, businesses and communities can take action to help reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint.
For further information please visit our Environment and Climate Change Green Hub.
West Berkshire Council is leading the way as one of the first UK councils to offer a through-pavement system for charging electric vehicles (EV) on the street.
After a successful trial over the last 9 months, we are thrilled to roll out the innovative Kerbo Charge system across the district. Residents can now charge their EVs from their home supply, which is 5 to 10 times cheaper than public chargers. This initiative will help improve air quality and reduce CO2 emissions in West Berkshire.
Here's how it works: when a resident wants to charge their car, residents simply insert their charging cable into the channel, and the specially designed lid closes behind it like a zip, eliminating unsightly and hazardous cables stretching across footpaths.
Further information and Application details can be found at Off-street electric vehicle charging for residents - West Berkshire Council.
Buses are an environmentally friendly way to get out and about. To show our support for World Car Free Day this year, we have again partnered with local bus operators to offer free bus travel across the district for the day.(Reading Buses JetBlack, 15, 16, 26 and 33, Stagecoach 32, Thames Travel X34)
In addition to the usual Sunday bus services, we also have a Special one-off service on the X34 between Newbury and Didcot. (Newbury Show Buses are not included in this event)
Free Bus Travel is also being planned on Saturday 16 November, Saturday 14 December and Saturday 21 December in the run up to Christmas. More information about the free Christmas bus travel offer will be released later in the Autumn, so watch this space!
Why not leave the car at home, and visit friends and family by bus, or a day out in Basingstoke, Didcot or Reading.
This free bus travel offer has been made possible by funding from HM Government, given to West Berkshire Council after our successful submission of a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) in October 2021.
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 Our Garden Waste collection for the new subscription year has started from 26 August 2024, with collections on your normal day, even if it’s a bank holiday.
For the 2024/25 garden waste collection service, we won't be issuing bin stickers. Instead, our collection crews will use in-cab technology to verify which properties have subscribed, making stickers unnecessary. To help identify your bin, you might want to mark it with your house number or name using permanent marker or paint.
We’re enhancing our monitoring to ensure only subscribed bins are collected. This includes checks by our crews, spot inspections by council officers, and the removal of green bins if put out from non-subscribers.
If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do so at: www.westberks.gov.uk/gardenwaste.
Before signing up, please check your bank to make sure you aren’t already paying by Direct Debit to avoid duplicate payments.
Let the sun pay for your energy bills. Register with Solar Together before 13 September to receive a competitive, personal recommendation from this group-buying scheme. A total of 4,894 households have already registered. Last year’s scheme resulted in 214 installations, with an average discount of 37% based on a 14-panel system.
For further Information on energy initiatives in West Berkshire please visit the Green Hub on West Berkshire Council website.
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Earlier this summer, two West Berkshire Council officers attended the Englefield Estate’s 27th annual Schools Days, the theme of which was sustainability. The estate becomes an outdoor classroom with Key Stage 2 children from a large number of schools invited for hands-on experiences of the rural environment (including history, farming, horticulture, rivers and forestry), through a variety of different activities all held within the historic Englefield Park.
The West Berkshire Council's Principal Archaeologist and Finds Liaison Officer had a stand to discuss what humans have been doing in the area for tens of thousands of years, and how we know about this cultural heritage.
Children examined Middle Stone Age flint tools, looked at maps and LiDAR images to find Bronze Age barrows and wondered whether we were standing on the site of the Saxon settlement of ‘Englafelda’, the open land of the Angles.
A consensus was reached among several hundred pupils that this fragile and irreplaceable archaeological resource was worth taking into account when planning any future development.
We are pleased to announce that Newbury has joined Thatcham in being awarded Plastic Free Community Status by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), in recognition of the work it has done to reduce the impact of single-use plastic!
EcoFriends (West Berkshire) pulled together key organisations, businesses and the town council to spread the word and reduce the number of disposable plastics they use.
‘’This is such an exciting step for Newbury, reducing our single use plastics, not only helps the environment but also our carbon footprint. Thank you to everyone that has helped. I can’t wait to take single use plastic reduction to the next level.’’
Nikki Coome, Chair of Eco Friends (West Berkshire)
Find out more: www.eco-friends.org.uk.
Email at plasticfree@eco-friends.org.uk
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West Berkshire Green Exchange (WBGE) and local projects will be at Newbury Show on 21 and 22 September.
Please visit the WBGE stand between the Food and Farming Zone and the Village Green to see the brilliant work our local eco groups are doing. The West Berkshire Green Exchange will have information on:
- Nature conservation
- Affordable and energy-efficient home improvements
- Single-use plastic reduction
- Mediterranean (naturally low-carbon and healthy) cooking
- Reducing food waste at home and in industry
- Estimating and reducing carbon footprints
- Debunking electric car myths, including charging and depreciation
- and much more
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Here is an encouraging example of how Newbury and District Agricultural Society (NADAS) are working to make their main event more sustainable. Read how they are making a difference in their own words:
"Alongside our charities educational work, we are constantly trying to find new ways to be more eco-friendly and reduce our impact on the environment, both day to day and for our 2024 Newbury Show. The changes we’ve made this year are just the start of our journey, and we hope to build on this progress year on year to work for a more sustainable future at NADAS."
Steve Ackrill, Chairman of the Board of Trustees (NADAS).
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10 changes NADAS have made in 2024:
- 100% of our waste won’t end up in landfill sites.
- We have free bike racks available on site (supported by West Berkshire Council), plus, a Show bus service running Saturday and Sunday from local towns/villages.
- We have water bottle refilling stations.
- We ask all our trade stands and vendors to use alternatives to single-use plastics.
- We have made the switch to paperless tickets and booking system.
- Majority of the show vehicles are now electric.
- As many of our signs/banners as possible are reusable year on year.
- We have our Local Producers’ area to help support local businesses.
- We’re making the switch to primarily LED lighting on site.
- We use local contractors and suppliers whenever possible to help reduce emissions and our carbon footprint.
Venue: Newbury Showground, Priors Court Road, Nr Chieveley, RG18 9QZ
Gates Open: Sat 8.30am-6pm, Sun 8.30am-5pm
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Action River Kennet (ARK) will have some 'rivery' hands-on educational activities for Newbury Show visitors, and tales about what lives in our West Berkshire rivers and very rare chalkstreams.
ARK are the Rivers Trust & catchment hosts for the River Kennet, River Lambourn and River Pang and their tributaries in West Berkshire.
You'll find the ARK river education team & volunteers sharing the Ramsbury Estate stand, waiting to meet you.
ARK were the winners of the Newbury Show Conservation & Environment Award in 2023.
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The Countryside Area is a key aspect of the Newbury Show this year, providing an opportunity for the public to learn more about many sustainable rural crafts and a multitude of countryside skills.
From coppicing to whittling, pottery to thatching - nothing goes to waste - you can chat to the experts themselves and watch them while they work.
Brimming with displays of traditional and more current rural crafts, the Countryside Area has something for every age. Learn about woodland management and how the cut wood is crafted into functional uses; fencing, woven into hurdles, wood turning, baskets, whittling and decorative items - nothing goes to waste - the ultimate upcycling!
The Display Lake and Countryside Arena has events all day including one of the leading falconers in the country, West Berkshire's very own Ray Prior, who's retiring this year. Ray will introduce magnificent birds to provide an up-close educational experience including falcons, hawks, owls and eagles.
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Martin Salter, President of the Reading District Angling Asso. writes: The decision to allow the importation of American non-native signal crayfish from 1976 was disastrous for the UK river environment as they quickly spread into many river systems including the Kennet and Lambourn. They have wiped out our native smaller, white-clawed crayfish along with reducing the natural fish populations of chub, barbel and dace.
Crayfish eat their way through river invertebrates, fish eggs, plus displace vast quantities of silt as they burrow into the river banks. The silt also damages the habitats that the invertebrates feed on, covers the gravel river bed that fish populations spawn on and in turn depletes the food sources for fish and many other river species. It is little wonder that native gravel spawners such as chub, barbel and dace populations are now poor in the River Kennet.
But all is not lost!
In February the Environment Agency and many clubs along the Kennet came together to open a ground breaking fish hatchery to introduce fry bred from wild, native Kennet fish. These swimming fry can avoid the crayfish predation in a way that freshly laid eggs on the river bed simply cannot.
In May the local Environment Agency fisheries team removed some brood fish from the Kennet just as they were at the point of spawning naturally. Before returning them back to the river, the eggs were harvested, mixed with the milt from the males and then nurtured within the hatchery just long enough to give the newly hatched fry the maximum chance of survival in the wild.
In July, some 10,000 free swimming fry, now able to escape the crayfish, were released by Manager Del Shackleford (RDAA) and Keith Johnson (KVFA).
The new hatchery is situated close to the river on land donated by the Englefield Estate and is a collaborative project led by the Reading and District Angling Association, with support from many local fisheries plus, The Environment Agency and Action for the River Kennet (ARK), Institute of Fisheries Management and volunteers.
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West Berkshire Council has successfully completed Stage 1 of the Stockcross Linkway, a new shared path designed for pedestrians and cyclists, connecting Stockcross Village to Newbury.
Running alongside the B4000, from Stockcross Village to the A4 roundabout, this first-stage scheme was driven by representations from Speen Parish Council, the Active Travel Heat Map consultation in 2021, and funding from the government’s Active Travel Fund. The project was developed in collaboration with Active Travel England, Speen Parish Council, and Ward Councillors for Newbury Speen.
This initiative is part of the Council's commitment to create safer routes for walking, wheeling, and cycling, connecting Stockcross and Speen with Newbury town centre via low-traffic routes such as Speen Lane and Goldwell Park
 There’s less than two months to see if you could receive free energy-saving upgrades for your home!
Homeowners have until the end of September to see if they’re eligible and register an interest in the Home Upgrade Grant.
You could receive free home improvements to help save energy and cut bills.
Don’t miss out! Check if you’re eligible now: www.hugapply.co.uk
 We are interested in how satisfied you are with:
- Local public bus services,
- Ticketing improvements,
- The £2 National Single Fare Cap, and
- Changes and improvements to public bus services.
We are also interested in:
- Your suggestions for improvements to passenger waiting areas, and
- Your views on long-distance coach services.
To take part, complete the online survey by midnight on Sunday 8 September 2024.
Paper copies of the survey are available on request by contacting: 01635 519394 or emailing: transport@westberks.gov.uk.
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