I was unanimously appointed Chair of West Berkshire Council (WBC) by my colleagues in May 2025. It’s the greatest honour that a councillor can be given, because it allows them to be passionately apolitical. You can read his acceptance speech here.

The sections below give a summary of the main events I attend. I hope this will not only show how varied the role is but also showcase some of the wonderful voluntary and community organisations which West Berkshire is so lucky to have.

My theme for the Council Year 2024/25 is “Have Faith in Our Future”. Unlike many towns, it’s not part of WBC’s protocol 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 faith in ourselves to function as a community.

We live in worrying times. More than ever, I believe it’s vital for the people of West Berkshire to have faith in their collective ability to meet the many challenges. It is often said “we’re all in this together” but a too many people have lost faith that politicians at all levels can act in the interests of the majority.

While the Leader of Council has the job of leading an elected administration, I see the Chair of Council as a more pastoral 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 in isolation.

Tony Vickers
Chair, West Berkshire Council

May/June 2005

Newbury Community Resource Centre (NCRC) – the Community Furniture Project as it’s commonly known – celebrated 25 years on 20 May 2025. Now based at two locations (one in Basingstoke, but initially and for about 20 years in Bone Lane in Newbury), my wife and fellow councillor (now Chair’s Consort) Martha officiated at the launch of the Furniture Project by Womens Aid when she was Newbury Mayor in 1998. We were hugely impressed by the wide range of NCRC’s activities, particularly the skills training for ‘hard to reach’ people. By repairing donated pre-loved objects that can be used by others, the life chances of the repairers are also repaired – what’s not to love about that?

Citizenship Ceremonies are held in Shaw House on the first Tuesday of alternate months. These are always humbling events for those of us lucky to have gained British citizenship by birth. With the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire (or a deputy) officiating as the King’s representative to take the Oath of Allegiance, the Chair of Council has the job of welcoming the new citizens to the district, briefly explaining what our Council does and congratulating them on having earned the right to participate in British democracy. Sometimes we have more than 20 new citizens. This time there were eight. A Nepalese couple – a former Gurkha soldier and his wife – got a special welcome from me: my father served with Gurkhas in WW2 in Burma and I grew up with them.

People Planet Pint gatherings happen at 6pm every first Tuesday in the month in The Newbury pub. These are sustainability meet-ups for small businesses across the country, sponsored by the charity Small99 founded by Adam Bastock in 2000 “to guide a million small businesses to Net Zero by 2025”. These now happen in 120 locations, with over 20,000 attendees. Although small 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 ten new people get at a meet-up…)

At National Shopmobility Week’s promotion on 5 June, the gazebo provided by Newbury BID for Volunteer Centre West Berkshire gave the Deputy Mayor and me a bit of shelter from the rain. I had a bad back that week, so appreciated my ride in an electric scooter. Nonetheless, I’ll stick to walking while I can. Increasingly, people with limited mobility own their own scooter and most shops and offices in Newbury cater for them. It is mainly visitors who hire ours and they’re sometimes under-used: hence the promotional event.

D-Day remembrance on 6 June saw me alongside my predecessor Councillor Billy Drummond – representing Greenham Parish Council’s chair at the wreath-laying at the control tower – to remember fallen WW2 US service personnel. Thousands of American airmen began their D-Day in 1944 at Greenham and the assembled civic leaders and other locals sang both the UK and US national anthems lustily. Father Michael Fava of St Joseph’s RC church in Newbury officiated: appropriate, as he was until recently the senior Catholic Forces chaplain. Martha and I are also practising Catholics.

The Lord Lieutenant’s Garden Party in Windsor Great Park saw this year’s “Berkshire Chain Gang” of Borough Council (four) mayors and District Council (two) chairs met for the first time at  The Lord Lieutenant, Andrew Try, praised the many voluntary bodies and volunteers for their work strengthening community cohesion.

Exhibition time. On 9 June I paid my first visit to the Royal Berkshire Archives in Reading for a preview of this summer’s exhibition Our River Thames which explains and illustrates how the river along Berkshire’s northern border has featured in our local history. All the Chain Gang there were again guests of Lord Lieutenant.

WBC’s local plan. On 10 June I took the chair in WBC’s Chamber to open the extraordinary meeting finally to adopt a new local plan for the district. Penny Post’s descriptions of the plan-making process are as good as any I’ve read. For me it was a huge relief to get WBC’s plan adopted: I’ve invested at least 200 hours over six 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 wouldn’t be in the interests of the people of this area.

Visit to Dobbies in Hungerford. 12 June saw me and my chain in Hungerford for the first time, at Dobbies garden centre, helping to celebrate its make-over. The Chair has to think carefully about attending such events, which could 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 investment will encourage local people to enjoy a healthy outdoor life, which boosts mental health and wellbeing. I sensed that staff were well managed, happy and helpful.

Bucklebury Estate. The first councillor to respond to my appeal for invitations to local events was my deputy as WBC appointee to North Wessex Downs (NWD) Council of Partners Councillor, Chris Read of Bucklebury. I was delighted to join him and about 30 locals on Bucklebury Common in the afternoon heat of 13 June for a walk and talk by the Steward of Bucklebury Estate to explain the conservation work taking place there. A government grant managed by NWD and the estate’s 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 Newbury Cycle Festival was last event of my first busy month as Chair. This celebrated the centenary of Newbury Road Club, one of the oldest cycling groups in Britain. Martha and I founded West Berkshire Spokes in 2002 to campaign for better cycling facilities when she was a local health visitor. In 2005 I chaired the Council’s Cycle Forum, which meets quarterly and brings together 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 have been 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.

• The photo at the top of the post shows Tony Vickers and others at Bucklebury Common on 13 June 2025.