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As part of our Bus Service Improvement Plans, and with grant funding from HM Government we are working in partnership with town and parish councils to deliver improvements to bus stops and new bus shelters across the district.
Eleven of the 21 new shelters will have low maintenance green living roofs which will help towards absorbing roadside carbon dioxide, improving air quality in the district, add biodiversity, assisting towards the Council’s Strategy of tackling the climate and the ecological emergency.
Through our annual bus surveys residents told us that the condition of waiting facilities makes a difference to how and when they travel. Following this feedback and HM Government funding, West Berkshire Council have been able to offer parish and town councils funding for new bus shelters, together with five years contribution towards their cleaning and general maintenance. In West Berkshire, bus shelters are the responsibility of local town and parish councils.
We are pleased that grants have now been issued to Burghfield, Compton, Holybrook, Pangbourne and Sulhamstead Parish Councils and Thatcham Town Council.
Did you know that we also collect textiles from the kerbside? Items should be reused where possible. Consider mending, upcycling into new items, donating to charity/friends/family or recycling into new materials.
 Please put your textiles out in a clear or white sack labelled as textiles next to your green boxes and bag. You can find out more about what can be recycled within West Berkshire here: www.westberks.gov.uk/recyclingcollection
In March, residents of West Berkshire were able to collect locally produced soil conditioner for free! It was fantastic to see 786 cars visit over the weekend which contributed to a new record of us giving away a whopping 88 tonnes!
If you missed the event don’t worry. We plan to run another event towards the end of summer so keep an eye on our website for more details closer to the time. You can find out more about how we create this fantastic product by clicking the button below.
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 GreenFest 2025 held on the 5 April, was a vibrant, community-powered success, drawing over a thousand attendees to St Bartholomew’s School, Newbury, for a day of eco-inspiration. Organised this year by The West Berkshire Green Exchange (WBGE), the event featured 60+ stalls, free hands-on activities, expert talks, workshops, and family-friendly fun - all focused on sustainability.
Billy Drummond, Chair of West Berkshire Council, opened the event and said: “I am thrilled to see so many gathered here, united in our commitment to creating a greener, more sustainable future for our community and beyond.”
Ken Neal, Chair of WBGE said: “Our thanks also go to Dr David Fitter, Headteacher of St Bartholomew’s School, and his staff for welcoming us in and allowing the use of these wonderful facilities. Thanks also to the local Eco groups who have responded magnificently to our invitation to share their work.”
Highlights included pedal-powered smoothie bikes, solar-powered Scalextric races, plant-based food, and engaging conversations on climate solutions. GreenFest encouraged low-carbon travel and celebrated local eco-efforts, with the “most sustainable stall” award going jointly to Clean Cut and Hungerford Food Community.
GreenFest proved the power of the community and working together to build a brighter, more sustainable future for West Berkshire.
You can find out more and see photos of the event at : https://www.wbge.org.uk/photo-gallery.html
West Berkshire Waste team at GreenFest
 Ellie Sherman (Principle Waste Officer) and Neil Ilott (Waste Minimisation Officer) helped man the Waste Team stand at GreenFest (pictured), along with support from Kofi Adu-Gyamfi (Service Lead Climate Change) and Veolia, our waste partner - who also collected all the recycling from the event!
Neil's experience on the day:
"I arrived ready to set up and was greeted by marshals who were promptly directing traffic to the correct parking areas. I was pleasantly surprised to be assisted by volunteers with trolleys helping stall holders transport items from their vehicles. Everyone was really friendly, and it was great to talk to mainly West Berkshire residents of which I estimated we spoke to circa 250. It was also a great opportunity to promote our latest kerbside addition, plastic food pots, tubs and trays, ordering more free recycling bags for extra capacity as well as reminding residents that we now collect household batteries and textiles from the kerbside. I had hoped to explore the many other stalls at the event, but we were so busy talking to residents that sadly I didn’t get a chance."
A fantastic event that I would love to attend again next year!
We are progressively installing more cycle parking close to local amenities.
Sites where new stands have been provided include Wash Common shops near the Falkland Memorial - Turnpike Estate shops and Kiln Road shop.
The new cycle parking helps gives people the option of cycling to shops, cafes and other local facilities.
Encouraging and enabling active travel, offering many residents an alternative for some or all their local, shorter-distance journeys, is in line with the Council Strategy Priority of tackling the climate and ecological emergency. We are open to considering proposals for similar sites please contact the WBC ActiveTravel team via ActiveTravel@westberks.gov.uk.
 You may notice that our e-newsletters start to look a little different soon as we change providers, but don't worry, it's still us! Make sure you add noreply@info.westberks.gov.uk to your safe senders email list to ensure you carry on receiving our newsletters without interruption.
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The North Wessex Downs National Landscape is managed by a Partnership, known as the Council of Partners. The Partnership works to an agreed five-year management plan and oversees the work of the National Landscape team. |
The existing Management Plan has been reviewed and currently being updated by the National Landscape Team, the Council of Partners (which includes nine Local Authority areas including West Berkshire) and others.
The public consultation of the Management Plan began in March and will close at midnight on Wednesday 30 April. Your views and comments form a very important part of the process - please have your say!
After taking into account the public feedback, the final Management Plan 2025-2030 will then proceed to approval phase when it will be formally adopted by the nine local authorities which make up the North Wessex Downs National Landscape later this year.
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The benefits to our health and well-being of being out and about in our countryside have become widely recognised, especially since the Covid pandemic.
Enabling easy access along public rights of way is an important activity for members of The West Berkshire Countryside Society (WBCS). Their weekly Tuesday Volunteer tasks involve both footpath construction and clearing back vegetation to keep footpaths open and ensuring that any obstructive trees and bushes are pruned (or, occasionally, removed). Their footpath work is carried out on sites for private landowners, parish councils, and other conservation organisations.
The WBCS publishes regular self-guided walks across West Berkshire footpaths, with a downloadable map and accompanying notes, to encourage the exploration of our beautiful and historic landscape.
A collection of 19 different WBCS countryside walks can be found by clicking on the button below.
West Berkshire has a wealth of heritage – these can be seen as archaeological sites, historic buildings and the landscapes around us. These heritage assets make up the historic environment of our District.
 Kintbury
A walk around this historic village and its surrounding landscape, including the Kennet and Avon Canal, some Second World War sites, the site of a Roman villa and some of Kintbury’s historic buildings. Download the Kintbury walk.
Hungerford
A walk around this historic market town in many of its important historic buildings, and exploring some of its archaeological past, including it’s well preserved Medieval street pattern and sites dating from the prehistoric and Roman period. Download the Hungerford walk.
Pangbourne
A short walk around this historic town, including many of its historic buildings and its past as a centre of boat building in the 19th century, as well as a military training area in the Second World War. Download the Pangbourne walk.
Inkpen
A walk around the historic village of Inkpen. First mentioned in an Anglo Saxon charter of 935 AD as ‘Ingepenne’ (enclosure on the hill), but there is also evidence of human activity in Inkpen stretching back to the Bronze Age. Download the Inkpen walk.
Thank you to everyone who’s supported the Freshwater Habitats Trust's 2025 PondNet Spawn Survey over the last couple of months. With more than 2,100 records, it’s already their biggest year yet - it’s not too late to get involved!
You can log your Common Toad and Common Frog spawn sightings here to help the Trust better understand when and where frogs and toads are breeding across the county. To see the map of all spawn records they've received, including West Berkshire garden ponds, please visit the WaterNet data hub.
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The Wild about Gardens campaign invites us all to become hoverfly heroes.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) and are calling on gardeners across the country to help save hoverflies. This fly family is the second most significant pollinator after bees – some species of hoverfly are known to visit more flowers than bees.
These insects are unsung heroes of many of our ecosystems. Hoverflies visit 52% of crops globally which they either pollinate or protect by eating sap-sucking aphids. Additionally, they pollinate wildflowers, are food for birds and even help break down organic matter in gardens. Due to their decline, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature added hoverflies to its Red List of threatened species.
Hoverflies are masters of disguise. These stingless insects are often mistaken for wasps, bees or even hornets and the different types go by various common names such as Batman (pictured), Footballer and Marmalade, thanks to their distinctive markings and colours.
It can be easier to identify them by their behaviour than their looks, because they hover or even zigzag around plants. Did you know that true flies have only one pair of flight wings (whereas bees and wasps have two!).
You can pledge your support on the button below and become a Hoverfly Hero! Or download the booklet packed with ideas and easy projects to try in your garden or balcony including:
- Pollinator plant boxes:
- Hoverfly lagoons:
- Larvae nurseries:
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