• Preparing for the storm

I well remember Storm Henk almost exactly two years ago. Driving carefully, as I thought, between Hungerford and Membury I went through a puddle that had a branch submerged in it that managed to rip the back off my car. It was my amazing good fortune that the next person who came along was not only known to me but also driving a largely empty van. We loaded the back panel up and went up to ND Services who fitted it back on.

Many residents of Marlborough were not so fortunate and the town suffered badly from the deluge. The Town Council has not been idle in the intervening period and this week issued a detailed statement explaining what measures it and its partners have taken, including information events, property resilience advice and a flood working group. It also provides advice on what residents can do themselves.

To read the full report, please click here.

• 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…

• Parking, traffic and roadworks. Marlborough and the surrounding area seems to suffer particularly badly from the worst effects of these and we’ve tried to explain the various problems that have arisen, as the well as the iniatives that the Town Council and others have launched regarding the long-term plans for traffic management in the area.

• Danny’s defection. Just over a year after he was re-elected as the Conservative MP for the (new) seat covering Marlborough, Danny Kruger decided that the way forward was with Reform UK and jumped ship. Local reaction ws, as might be epected, mixed.

• Housing issues. Marlborough declared a housing emergency in 2024 and several town council meetings have been concerned with quizzing social-housing providers and Wiltshire Council on what can be done to preserve and ideally the existing social-rent housing stock. This is a problem which is facing many rural areas and small towns.

• Forestry England. In November we took at look (via an article in Marlborough News) at Forestry England’s slightly opaque plans for the future of the Postern Hill campsite. Similar concerns had earlier been expressed about access issues in the Savernake Forest.

• Lifest. We’ve helped provide information about this excellent and well-established event which took place in 2025 in late September and early October.

• Action for the River Kennet (ARK). This excellent riparian charity, currently based in Marlborough, has cropped up in many news stories, often because of the wide range of outreach work which it conducts as part of its many projects. It’s also my first point of contact when I run into some story about pollution, sewage or anything aquatic which I need to have translated into plain everyday English.

• Apprentice success. Congratulations to Marlborough Town Council which took on two apprentices, Emma Cook and Matt Powell, in 2024. Emma’s was for eighteen months and her role as Information Officer was combined with a Business and Administration apprenticeship at New College Swindon. She passed her exams with flying colours in late 2025 and has since found a permanent job elsewhere. Matt’s apprenticeship still has just over a year to run.

• Town-centre plans. Marlborough Town Council has since late 2022 been actively involved in regeneration and improvement plans for the town centre. In June 2025 it published an update on its progress and invited comments from residents on specific ideas.

• Marlborough News. Some of these stories, and many others besides, were brought to our attention through the excellent Marlborough News website, which keeps as close an eye on life in the town as we try to do in our area, particularly Hungerford and the Lambourn Valley. We’ve frequently referred and linked to, and sometimes elaborated on, articles published here. Marlborough is very lucky to have such a news resource and we’re happy to do what we can to to help promote and support it.

• Other stories we’ve covered in the area in 2024 include rural housing problems in Aldbourne and Bedwyn, a strange epidemic of littering in Bedwyn, art in Ramsbury, speeding in Wittonditch  and vandalism in Axford.