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Thursday 8 January 2026

Our usual round-up of Hungerford area news includes a look back at 2025, the latest Hungerford newsletter and WBC’s finances – plus news from the High Street, recruitment, crafting, Italian conversation, tokens, dog walking and a book. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Hungerford events include Mission Impossible & Repair Cafe. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Penny Post Hungerford

Our latest regular monthly newsletter covering most aspects of life in the town was published earlier this week. You can click here to read it if you didn’t receive it. Matters covered included…

• The latest update from Hungerford Town Council.
• News, tips and offers from several of Hungerford’s businesses.
• An update on the gas-mains repairs which started this week.
• The latest monthly diary for John O’Gaunt head teacher Richard Hawthorne.
• News for a wide range of voluntary, charitable and faith groups.
• The Bookshop’s favourite reads of 2025.
• Special offers.
• A seasonal short story.
• A trip back in time with Hungerford Virtual Museum.
• Eco and wildlife news.
• Events and activities.
• Property and jobs.
• …and an interesting question from Terry Pratchett.

If you want to contribute anything to the February edition, email penny@pennypost.org.uk by the end of the month.

• A look back at 2025

We’ve covered a large number of stories in this area over the last twelve months. We’ve picked out some of the major ones below, several of which won’t go away or keep coming back…

• Hungerford Town Council (HTC). The Council’s varied work has continued and we’ve given in-depth coverage to this throughout the year, including providing monthly summaries of its many activities which are featured in our Penny Post Hungerford e-newsletter. One of the challenges for 2026 will be, as it was last year, how it deals with the consequences of WBC’s funding cuts, which are likely to lead to some services needing to be taken over by HTC if they’re to continue. We’ve also on several occasions explained some of the matters for which HTC is not responsible (including planning decisions, speed limits and road closures) and the methods which it nevertheless uses to influence these for the benefit of the town.

• Chestnut Walk. The long delay in making any progress with re-purposing the former carehome – which should be an embarrassment to all involved – was finally ended in late 2025 when it was announced that, contrary to what we’d all been led to suppose, the building was in fact in quite good condition and would be converted for use for emergency accommodation, rather than re-built for social housing. A number of questions remain, including how much this has all cost, how much could have been saved from WBC’s emergency-accommodation bill were this decision to have been made earlier and how the whole joint venture was allowed to produce nothing whatsoever.

• Housing problems. Two issues – the dangerous state of some of the SNG-owned garages in Hungerford and a number of problems at Redwood House – were specifically raised at the HTC meeting in December: and neither for the first time.

• Housing at Station Road. Chestnut Walk having failed so miserably to provide any social-rent homes, much attention is now focused on the development here, permission for which was granted in August 2025. In September, it became clear that there’s currently some doubt as to how many dwellings will actually be built here.

• The neighbourhood development plan. This process enables local communities, in conjunction with the planning authority, to write the policies for the district’s local plan which are specific to that parish, including allocating sites for development. After seven years of work, Hungerford’s NDP was passed by referendum in December 2025. Congratulations to all those involved.

• The town-centre strategy. Work on this WBC initiative to look at possible improvements to the town was devolved to a locally constituted steering group in 2025. In the event, it proved impossible for the key stakeholders to agree on the first issue it decided to consider, that of a possible pedestrianised area near the Town Hall. The process has been paused indefinitely and it seems unlikely it will be re-visited any time soon.

• The Kennet Valley Wetlands Reserve. This is a Town & Manor project and will see about 40 acres alongside the river transformed over the next few years. Work has progressed in 2025, despite a long pause for a rather perverse planning objection about whether it was a “water-compatible development”; the name of the scheme seeming rather to answer this point.

• Town events. As usual, Hungerford hosted a number of events throughout the year, organised by various groups. Aside from the continued excellent Wednesday markets and the monthly Sunday ones between April and October, the main ones in 2025 were Hocktide, the Christmas lights switch-on and the Extravaganza.

• The Resource Centres. At the WBC budget meeting in February, it was announced that the district’s three day-care and respite centres, one of which is in Hungerford, would probably be outsourced and the existing centres therefore possibly closed. After a campaign of opposition, this decision was later reversed. How permanent this will prove to be given the state of WBC’s finances is uncertain: this is a service that must be provided but not necessarily by the council directly.

• Aldi. In July, the supermarket giant put in an application for a store just off Charnham Street (A4). The proposal, which seems to have met with very few objections, is set to be determined in early 2026.

• Policing changes. In May, it was announced that there would be changes to the structure of policing arrangements in and around Hungerford which eventually resulted in the town losing its dedicated Sergeant. HTC and others opposed these alterations which nevertheless came into force in May 2025. At a high-level meeting in June 2025 it was agreed that these arrangements would be reviewed in late 2025, although this has now been rescheduled for early 2026.

• The Town and Manor’s Trustee elections. Each trustee serves for six years and half are up for re-election every three. The latest elections took place in May 2025.

• Leisure Centre extension. The long-awaited extension to the Hungerford Leisure Centre was delivered by lorry, and lifted in place by crane, in December 2024 and was officially opened in March 2025.

• Speed-limit changes. After a long campaign, WBC’s Speed Limit Review Panel agreed in February to recommend that the speeds in Sanham Green be limited to 30mph. There are still further hurdles to be crossed – anything to do with highways is very regulated – but it’s expected that this will be implemented some time this year.

• A hundredth anniversary. In April 2025, we celebrated producing our one hundredth Penny Post Hungerford monthly e-newsletter with, amongst other things, three prize quizzes. We look forward to continuing to publish this, and our weekly e-newsletters, to provide news and comment about life in the town.

• Away from Hungerford, we’ve also covered matters in the surrounding villages. These have included a changed footpath in Chilton Foliat, a re-opened playground, an attempted land-grab and a possible public space in Kintbury and continuing A4 speeding issues in Froxfield.

West Berkshire Council has a potential funding gap of at least £6.4 million for 2026/27. It is asking local residents to have their say by 12 January on how the council should increase funds and decrease spending to balance the budget. You can click here to have your say. Similar exercises have in the past resulted in some changes being made so your response could well be influential.

• Latest local newsletters

• Inkpen and Combe Bulletin.
• Froxfield News.

• Have your say on:

Consultations being run by West Berkshire Council:

• Budget proposals 2026/27: To cease directly providing Adult Respite in the Community (ARC) services, which will be commissioned from alternative providers – deadline 12 Jan 2026.
• Budget proposals 2026/27: To extend and increase the peak-time hire charges for the artificial pitch at Henwick Worthy Sports Ground – deadline 12 Jan 2026.
• Balancing our budget 2026/27: How we could fund and prioritise the services we provide – deadline 12 Jan 2026.
• Proposed Traffic Regulation Order: Hermitage, Bucklebury and Cold Ash 20mph speed limit – deadline 28 Jan 2026.
• Proposed Admission Arrangements for Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools 2027/28 – deadline 30 Jan 2026.

Parish and town councils also run consultations from time to time: see the appropriate website/s below under Council contacts.

• News from other areas

• Penny Post area: see the following separate sections: Hungerford area; Lambourn Valley; Newbury area; Thatcham area; Compton and Downlands; Burghfield area; Wantage area; Marlborough area.
• News and views from across the area and beyond: see the most recent Weekly News with Brian column.