A first month of celebrating West Berkshire
It is now a month since I was unanimously appointed Chairman of Council by my colleagues. It is the greatest honour that a councillor can be given, because it allows them to be passionately apolitical!
My theme for the Council Year 2024/25 is "Have Faith in Our Future". Unlike many mayors of towns and the House of Commons, it is not part of our protocol in West Berkshire Council to have an honorary Chaplain or to say prayers before start of business. We have no particular Faith - but in any community we need to have a fair degree of faith in ourselves to function as a community.
We all now live in deeply worrying times. More than ever, I believe it is vital for the people of West Berkshire to have faith in their collective ability to meet the many challenges of our time. It is often said "we're all in this together" but at the same time too many people have lost faith in politicians at all levels to act in the interests of the majority.
While the Leader of Council has the job of leading an elected Administration, I see my job as Chairman of Council as having a more pastoral leadership role: celebrating (in a secular sense) the many things which organisations active in West Berkshire are doing to give their members faith in one another. Acting together, we can achieve so much more than if we act in isolation.
During this first month I have attended 11 events, all of them celebrations of a kind:
Newbury Community Resource Centre (NCRC) - or the Furniture Project as it is commonly known - celebrated 25 years since it was founded. Now based at two locations (one in Basingstoke, but initially and for about 20 years in a large warehouse in Bone Lane, Newbury), my wife and fellow councillor (now Chairman's Consort) Martha officiated at the launch of the Furniture Project by Womens Aid when she was Newbury Mayor in 1998 (see the photo below). We were hugely impressed by the wide range of activities NCRC undertakes, particularly the skills training it manages for some 'hard to reach' under-achieving individuals who go on to fulfil useful jobs in society. By repairing donated 'pre-loved' objects that help homeless or simply poor families furnish their homes, the life chances of the repairers are also repaired! What's not to love about that.
A Citizenship Ceremony is held in Shaw House on the afternoon of the first Tuesday of alternate months. These are always humbling events for us lucky people who gained British citizenship by birthright. With the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire (or one of his Deputies) officiating as the King's personal representative to take the Oath of Allegiance, the Chairman of Council has the job of welcoming the new citizens to our district and very briefly explaining what our Council does, congratulating them on having now earned the right to participate in British Democracy, thereby playing a small part in how local decisions are made. Sometimes we have more than 20 new citizens. This time there were just 8 but a couple from Nepal - a former Gurkha soldier and his wife - got a special welcome from me, because my father served with Gurkhas in World War II in Burma and I grew up with Gurkhas as a small boy.
A People Planet Pint gathering happens at 6pm every first Tuesday in the month in The Newbury pub. I heard about this from a fellow councillor. These are "sustainability meet-ups" for small businesses all over the country, sponsored by the charity Small99 that Adam Bastock founded in 2000 "to guide 1 million small businesses to Net Zero by 2025". Adam felt there wasn't any easily available guidance for them. These gatherings now happen in 120 towns and cities, with over 20,000 attendees. Although tiny businesses can nowadays have global customers, their support network can be very local and much of it comes through local councils. I was slightly tempted by the free drink which the first 10 new people get at a meet-up!
The promotion of National Shopmobility Week on the first Thursday morning in June turned out wet but the gazebo provided by Newbury BID for West Berks Volunteer Bureau, who administer ours from Northbrook multi-story car park, gave the deputy mayor, Martha and myself a handy bit of shelter. I happened to have a bad back that week, so I appreciated my ride in an electric scooter but mine must have had an almost flat battery: maximum speed was about 2mph! I will stick to walking while I can. A growing number of people with limited mobility now own their own scooter and most shops and offices in Newbury cater for them. It is mainly visitors to our area who hire ours and they are becoming under-used, hence the promotional event.
D-Day remembrance 6th June saw me alongside my predecessor Cllr Billy Drummond, who was representing Greenham Parish Council's chairman at the wreath laying at the control tower, where wreaths were placed in front of the memorial stones remembering fallen US service personnel of World War II. Thousands of American airmen began their D-Day in 1944 at Greenham and the assembled British civic leaders and other local people sang both the UK and US national anthems lustily. Fr Michael Fava of St Joseph's RC church in Newbury officiated: very appropriate as he was until a few years ago the senior Catholic chaplain to the Forces. Martha and I are also practising Catholics.
This year's "Berkshire Chain Gang" of Borough Council (4) mayors and District Council (2) Chairmen met for the first time at the Lord Lieutenant's Garden Party in Windsor Great Park. We heard Andrew Try the current Lord Lieutenant praise the many voluntary bodies and volunteers for their work strengthening community cohesion.
On Monday 9th June I had a first ever visit to the Royal Berkshire Archives in Reading for a preview of this summer's Exhibition "Our River Thames" there: items held explaining and illustrating how the river along the northern border of Berkshire has featured in our local history. All the Chain Gang there were again guests of Lord Lt. Andrew Try.
On 10th June I took the Chair in West Berks Council Chamber to open the "Extraordinary" meeting to adopt a new Local Plan for the district. It wasn't really a choice! Brian's description of the whole development "Plan Making" process is as good as any I've read. For me it was a huge relief to get the Plan adopted by the Council, as I've invested at least 200 hours over 6 years working on it with our planning officers and fellow councillors. That doesn't mean I support everything in it. But not having the ownership of an up-to-date Plan would most definitely not be in the interests of the people of this area.
12th June saw me and my chain in Hungerford for the first time at Dobbies garden centre, helping to celebrate their make-over. The Chairman has to think carefully about whether to attend such events, which could sometimes be construed as favouring one commercial organisation in a competitive market. I'm supposed to be neutral as well as apolitical. However Dobbies is the only garden centre in the west of our district and its Brand New Look investment here will encourage local people to enjoy a healthy outdoor life, which boosts our mental health and wellbeing. I sensed that staff were well managed, happy and helpful.
The first councillor to respond to my appeal for invitations to local events was my deputy as West Berks Council appointee to North Wessex Downs (NWD) Council of Partners Cllr Chris Read of Bucklebury Ward. So I was delighted to join him on Bucklebury Common in the heat of afternoon on 13th for a walk and talk by the Steward of Bucklebury Estate to explain and show a group of about 30 locals what the conservation work there is about. A grant from Government managed by NWD and the estate's young ranger Sam is recreating heathland habitat for endangered bird and insect species as well as woodland pasture, helped by a small herd of native cattle which will use "geo-fencing" technology to keep them off local roads.
The last event of my first busy month as Chairman wasNewbury Cycle Festival, celebrating the centenary of Newbury Road Club, which is one of the oldest cycling groups in Britain. Martha and I founded West Berks SPOKES in 2002 to campaign for better cycling facilities when she was a local health visitor known to make her home visits by bike in Newbury. In 2005 I chaired the Council's Cycle Forum, which still meets quarterly and brings together all stakeholders in 'active travel'. The event was a huge success and every kind of muscle powered vehicle was present, including a modern penny-farthing! I was delighted to be invited to launch and lead the parade of bikes through the town centre to Victoria Park for an afternoon of fun with a cycling theme.
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