These notes incorporate some but not all of the matters discussed at the HTC meeting on 5 August 2024, the agenda for which can be found here. The official minutes of the meeting will in due course be found on the HTC site. Any references below to “the meeting” refer to this event unless specified otherwise. Any such issues are not necessarily covered here in the order in which they were discussed. This report may also include information about HTC’s activities which were not discussed at the meeting.
Full Council Meetings generally take place at 7.00pm in the Library on the first working Monday of every month, or on the first Tuesday if the first Monday is a bank holiday.
The agenda for the future meetings (as well as for the Council’s various committee meetings) can be found in this section of the HTC website.
See the foot of this post for more information.
HTC = Hungerford Town Council; WBC = West Berkshire Council; WAPC = WBC’s WBC’s Western Area Planning Committee. NDP = Neighbourhood Development Plan. H2036 = Hungerford’s NDP (so-called until October 2023). HNP = Hungerford’s NDP (from October 2023). DC = District Councillor; TVP = Thames Valley Police.
For HTC updates from previous months, please visit the archives here.
Police report
The following report was produced by the local police team
Events in July
July has been another busy month for the team. Along with the usual school ND village fetes at this time of year, the General Election was held on 4 July with polling stations being visited throughout the day by the team.
On 18 July the Prime Minister hosted the European Leaders at Blenheim Palace. Several members of the team were deployed to Oxfordshire to assist in the Policing operation.
During the month there were six reports of anti-social behaviour in the town, nine of criminal damage, two of theft and one of burglary (to a shed in Eddington).
The local police team
The current set-up of the team is one Inspector, one Sergeant, three Police Constables and four PCSOs to cover the Hungerford and Downlands area. Please see below for how to contact them.
Local events
If you have any community events for which you would like representation from your local NHPT, please contact them via the email address below. While local TVP representatives cannot guarantee always to be able to attend, they will make every effort to do so.
General information (including contacts)
- Please report all incidents to the Police or otherwise they will not be officially recorded – news travels fast round a community but if no one reports incidents the police may not know about it. Mentioning an incident on social media does not count as reporting the crime.
- People are encouraged to sign up for Thames Valley Alerts. As well as local crime information, you can receive details of the latest scams.
- Thames Valley Police has a Facebook page.
- The local policing team also wants to draw attention to the ‘what three words’ app which is used to help with the prevention of rural crime by locating people. The app provides a three-word code for each grid which is mapped over the world. By ringing 999 and quoting it, the police can locate you.
- If you believe you have been a victim of fraud or cybercrime, please report it to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040, or visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk.
- You can report incidents online but if it is urgent please continue to call on 101 (non-emergency) and 999 in an emergency.
- If you would like to report anonymously you can do so via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online.
- The team’s email address is HungerfordandDownlandsNHPT@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk This is not monitored 24/7 and should not be used in an emergency or to report a crime.
- The local police team is keen to promote the Herbert Protocol initiative which helps us all to try to keep vulnerable members of our community safe.
Open forum
In the open forum before the meeting, concern was reported by some residents about many and various cases of anti-social behaviour in one part of the town. After some discussion, HTC stated that while their official powers in dealing with such complaints were very limited, they can and will raise the matter with others who should be better placed to help and strongly recommended that detailed daily records be kept of these problems.
The Mayor’s report
I’m sorry I can’t be with you this evening; I hope you all have a lovely summer break.
The Station Road car park
I attended a meeting alongside Councillor Fyfe at WBC to discuss various outstanding concerns around the upkeep of the Station Road car park and clarity of the parking bay numbers.(this was initially a personal freedom of information request). HTC felt this information would be useful to HTC and the Town Steering group. Various actions were agreed: some will need to wait for funding, others remain on this year’s budget. Examples include:
- Clarity on available public car parking spaces, these are not the same as when the car park was first built.
- Ornate lighting needs to be cleaned and LED bulbs in all lanterns not just some.
- The vegetation needs urgent address, as shrubs are now encroaching onto parking bays.
- The height restriction barriers are damaged and either need replacement, repair or removal. These have been superseded with the new barrier system.
- Data requested on daily vehicle numbers and revenue made from parking charges. Highlighting times when the car park is busier.
- The recycling area is often a target for fly tipping or rubbish left when containers are full. HTC has requested this is monitored more often and staff instructed to remove additional debris.
The Town Centre Steering Group
This was a positive meeting and although we have received some data from WBC more input is required. A member of WBC Highways team has been asked to attend the next meeting. The next stage will be to draw up some plans and go out to public consultation. The process is slow and currently funds are limited. The steering group is here to streamline the ideas and bring a selection forward for further debate/consultation. Minutes from the last meeting will be available soon.
Hungerford Carnival
I was delighted to judge the entries alongside Fiona Hobson, Constable Julie Lloyd and Bellman Julian Tubb. The carnival committee worked hard to ensure the carnival tradition remains in Hungerford. Those who entered put so much effort into the costumes. Congratulations to Hungerford Nursery which took first place in the walking entries. The children were brilliant and really enjoyed the afternoon. Our wonderful Town Clerk was crowned carnival Queen, Claire made a huge effort and the crown was well deserved.
If you would like to continue to see our carnival each year, please get involved next year – it’s a lot of work, but we’d all like to see the carnival grow. If you’re a company or organisation please join in, you don’t necessarily need a low loader, just join the walking section. You can keep anything you collect en route. I will hopefully see many more of you next year.
Freedom of the Town
The best part of the role is reading about all the community minded volunteers in Hungerford. Looking at this year’s nominations makes you truly appreciate how lucky we are to have so many people going the extra mile.
Those awarded will be notified by me in due course.
Bewley/Lancaster Park
Councillor Cole and I attended a meeting at Bewley Homes’ head office with Stella Coulthurst, attending as a Lancaster Park resident. We met to continue the conversation on landscaping and planning conditions. Whilst HTC can assist residents to ensure all conditions are met on site, we are unable to assist in some anomalies which have come to light. HTC will be watching closely and will continue to ask its ward members to make sure residents receive the support and outcomes promised.
D-Day
The D-Day celebration in Hungerford on the weekend of 28 to 30 June 2024 was probably one of the largest and most impressive event the town has hosted.
“Event”, singular, is wrong, however, as there were several – historical talks and displays, a 1940s dance, a big band in the Town Hall, a parade by REME down the High Street to mark Armed Forces Day, displays of military vehicles, a parachute display, a vehicle convoy, a veteran’s parade to the Common, wartime games and crafts for the kids in the Town Hall and the unveiling of a plaque to mark Eisenhower’s speech to the Allied troops in August 1944. There were also, as one would expect, plenty of flags and bunting and a several examples of 1940s-style clothes and music. A weekend to remember, all in all, in commemoration of an event that should not be forgotten.
Indeed, “commemoration” was one of the three aims of the weekend, the other to being “education and celebration”. Few would deny that all these were achieved. There was also a fourth equally successful aim, with nearly £6,000 raised for the RBL Hungerford Branch (including the RBL Poppy Appeal and Ladies Division).
For those who weren’t able to attend, the BBC broadcast coverage of the event and local radio stations Kennet and 4LEGS both featured it. You can also click here to remind yourself of the full programme of events and for a photo gallery.
The organising committee would like to thank all those who took part and helped and supported the weekend, in particular Hungerford’s amazing volunteers; also to all those who in various ways made generous donations.
EV charge points
WBC had promised over two years ago that ones would be installed in the Station Road car park, but this got bogged down in interminable wayleave agreements so attention was switched to the car park by the Library. That also proved to be no quick matter. Finally, on 1 August, HTC received some firm news.
On that day, WBC announced that it has received the final drawings for the car park “which indicate that the chargers will be placed along the wall that is adjacent the Library and by the exit of the car park, taking up the five spaces that are currently there and having four accessible charging bays so that there is a gap for both chargers between the spaces.”
These will be one dual header 22kw charger and one dual header rapid charger. There will also be a junction box placed in the parking bay which already contains the bollard and pay machine to power these chargers and make the connection to the grid.
Ground works started on 6 August and the chargers are expected to be fully operational by mid-October. This may change in the light of unforeseen circumstances, of which this project has already seen more than a few.
Street lights
As reported following the July meeting, about five years ago HTC embarked on a programme of upgrading the hundred or so street lights in the town that it owned. When these were brought up to a suitable standard, they would be adopted by WBC which would thereafter assume all responsibility for their maintenance and electricity. About 70 had been through this process, leaving 31 still unmodernised and unadopted.
WBC has, however, recently said that not only does it not want to adopt any more lights but also that it will no longer maintain HTC’s ones: previously it did this and charged HTC but from April 2025 HTC will need to take on this directly. If HTC has to find its own contractor this is likely to cost more as the economies of scale will have vanished.
HTC is considering its next move on this. It also needs to decide if it will continue to upgrade the remaining 31 lights so reducing future maintenance cost, or deal with each problem as it arises. Another issue is that most of these lights are in poor condition or awkward locations. A report referred to at the meeting suggested that only three or four could be decommissioned without causing a loss of amenity: in any event, the costs wouldn’t end there as a light could still be a hazard even if not operational and to remove it would cost money as well.
At the August meeting, the Town Clerk said that she would soon be having a meeting with Volker (WBC’s contractors) to discuss the costs for its maintaining the street lights for HTC, rather than for WBC.
Play park in Ramsbury Drive
The meeting was told by Councillor Fyfe that following a recent RoSPA inspection two pieces of equipment would be replaced very soon and two others in the near future. This left one which required “some serious TLC” and improvements would be pressed for as soon as possible.
District Councillors’ reports
Only DC Vickers attended the meeting. He made the following comments:
- Housing targets. The main issue he referred to was the government’s recent announcement about revised housing targets , which was likely to mean that West Berkshire would need to provide more than twice as many net new dwellings as it previously anticipated. The impact on Hungerford, and the parish’s NDP, is currently uncertain.
- The North Wessex Downs. He also reported that he was pressing for work to be continued on advancing the North Wessex Downs’ National Landscape’s (formerly AONB’s) updated management plan: despite the above-mentioned uncertainty, this covers many more matters than planning. He also pointed out that this was of particular relevance to West Berkshire. Not only was nearly three-quarters of the district, including Hungerford, in the AONB but also that for every pound the organisation spend there about £45 was recouped from grants from DEFRA and others as a result.
- Schools clawback. He referred to this matter, which has received considerable local press coverage (including in Penny Post). No schools in Hungerford were currently affected by this.
- Planning problems. He also said that he had been involved in beta-testing a new online system for dealing with complaints about the planning issues, something that the current Report a Problem section on WBC’s website could not easily be adapted to cover. The results seemed promising. When launched it would be available for all residents to use.
The Hungerford neighbourhood development plan (HNP)
Some modest progress in July:
- Regulation 14 Consultation completed and just awaiting highways and drainage which have recently been received. There appear to be no significant problems identified so there should only be a few minor changes as a result.
- The plan has been updated with a series of tracked changes and just await above comments.
- The progamme is struggling and mid 2025 is the likely for adoption.
- The emerging WBC Local Plan increased housing numbers is a potential concern. However, it has not affected our Neighbourhood Plan so far, but there is a risk that numbers could change.
Key next actions are: complete the consultation comments and draw up potential changes based on these; update plan and submit to WBC for Regulation 16 Consultation with associated support documents.
For more information on the HNP project, see this separate post.
Flower tubs
Following WBC’s refusal to sanction the installation of bollards to protect various assets such as buildings and pavements in the town, HTC is considering the alternative approach of placing robust flower tubs on the pavement in places where bollards would have been positioned. These would then be added to the stock of the excellent tubs, planters and other floral displays that Smarten Up Hungerford currently maintains. A representative of the organisation was present at the meeting and pointed out that as the main issue was that of watering, their positioning would need to work for the contractors.
After some discussion about cost, size, location and numbers, Councillor Montgomery suggested that a feasibility group be set up to look at all the issues, short- and long-term, and report back to the Highways and Transport Committee. This proposal was accepted.
Potholes
Councillor Keates congratulated WBC for having recently fixed a number of potholes in the town. WBC’s Report a Problem page is the place to go to to do this. Mentioning the matter on social media does not produce the same result: the same can be said about reporting crimes, where only contact with the police (see above) produces official results.
HTC’s committees
The following committee meetings have recently taken place (“last meeting” refers to the last meeting for which minutes were available on the day this post was published). Environment & Planning generally meets once a month and the others every other month. See the separate section above for meetings relating to the Hungerford neighbourhood Plan and the Town-centre Strategy.
- Highways and Transport. (Last meeting 22 July – click here to read the minutes.) Items covered included: safety improvements at The Croft; parking on footways; pavement cleaning; speeding; WBC’s parking charges consultation; the third try-bin; Hungerford in Bloom; CCTV; and health and safety issues.
- Recreation, Amenities and War Memorials. (Last meeting 15 July – click here to read the minutes.) Items covered included: repairs and maintenance; RoSPA inspections; tree works; Ramsbury Playpark; and the Triangle Field inspection.
- Environment and Planning. (Last meeting 8 July – click here to see the minutes.) Items covered included: five planning applications (one “strong support”, one “no objection”, one “objection”, one withdrawn and one for information only); and case officers’ reports.
- Finance and General Purposes. (Last meeting 3 July – click here to read the minutes.) Items covered included: the Tennis Court lease; the lease on the Bridge Street War Memorial gardens; D-Day; grant applications; and a review of financial policies.
Note: if the links above don’t work, this may be because they were linked to unadopted (draft) minutes which have since been replaced by adopted ones. If so, please visit this page of HTC’s website for the most up-to-date information on meetings past and the agendas of those yet to come.
For details on HTC’s committees, including membership, agendas and minutes, please click here (and go to the “Town Council” tab).
Contacting HTC
HTC can be contacted in the following ways:
- By email to townclerk@hungerford-tc.gov.uk.
- By post to The Town Clerk, Hungerford Town Council, The Library, Church Street, Hungerford RG17 0JG.
- In person at the above address between 10am and 2pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
- By phone on 01488 686 195.
Any questions for an HTC meeting need to arrive by 2pm on the day (please allow more time if you have left this on the ansafone).
Members of the public are also welcome to attend any meetings.
Contacting WBC in an emergency
You can also contact West Berkshire Council out of office hours for emergencies. These are considered to include:
- Major incidents such as major accidents or significant flooding.
- Fallen trees and other debris blocking or restricting roads or causing potential danger to road users.
- Traffic lights not working (West Berkshire Council only manages fixed traffic lights, not temporary ones).
- Emergency repairs to council-owned temporary accommodation (tenants of properties should contact their housing association, landlord or agent).
The sections above cover the main issues with which HTC has recently been involved or concerned: it by no means describes all of HTC’s activities. Nor is this an official record of any meeting nor of any other aspect of HTC’s activities. Links to the official minutes of this and other meetings are provided in this post. For more information on HTC, please click here.
If there’s anything that you’d like to see addressed by HTC, and perhaps also covered in this way in future editions of Penny Post Hungerford, please email claire.barnes@hungerford-tc.gov.uk. Any such suggestions should be received at least four working days before the end of the month (and preferably sooner) if they are to be included in the corresponding post for the following month. That is not, of course, to say that HTC will not in any case give the matter its attention and respond personally if appropriate.
This information has been compiled by Penny Post from information supplied by HTC and others. Every reasonable effort has been made to provide a clear and dispassionate summary of the points covered but these may contain expressions of opinion which may not accord with HTC’s official view on the matter. Links have been provided to other posts, on the Penny Post site or elsewhere, to give additional information where this has been judged useful or necessary. The presence of such a link should not be taken to imply that HTC necessarily agrees with, endorses or supports any of the material contained therein.
