These notes incorporate some but not all of the matters discussed at the Hungerford Town Council meeting on 7 April 2026, 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 raised and some items that were discussed may not be covered here.  This report may also include information about HTC’s activities which were not discussed at the meeting. 

Full Council Meetings generally take place at 7pm 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 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.

Sue Pearson

Before the meeting, the Mayor presented Sue Pearson with a Mayor’s Medal for thirty-five years’ volunteer service in the town for a variety of causes, including All Aboard at Redwood House, the Church Choir, the Darts League and the Mothers’ Union.

Police report

No report was supplied for the meeting.

See also The local Police team section near the foot of the post; also the Mayor’s report immediately below.

REME’s freedom of the town award

On Saturday 25 April, the 6 Armoured Close Support Batallion of REME will be awarded the Freedom of the Town. There has long been a close relationship between the Batallion and REME which this ceremony will formalise.

REME will assemble near the Football Club at 11.30am and then march down Bulpit Lane, Priory Road and the A338 (High Street) with the ceremony taking place near the Arcade. There’ll be a rolling road closure during the march and the High Street will be closed between the Atherton Road and Park Street roundabouts for the ceremony. This is expected to end at about 12.15pm. Members of the public are encouraged to attend to support the batallion’s members on their journey through the town.

Chestnut Walk

The saga of the former care home at Chestnut Walk in Hungerford has been rumbling on for nearly a decade. Closed in 2017, the original plan was that, by a joint venture (JV) between WBC and Sovereign (SNG) social-rent homes would be built instead. After years of largely inexplicable delay, it was finally admitted in 2025 that the scheme was not viable. At about the same time, the discovery was made that the building was actually in quite good condition and could be re-purposed rather than demolished. That being the case, WBC then decided that its best use would be as temporary accommodation for people who were homeless.

At the meeting DC Gaines, confirmed that the planning application was now live and that an FAQ letter had been delivered to all neighbouring properties. A link to this, and to the application, can be found in this separate article which looks at the protracted background to the scheme, why WBC has decided on this re-purposing and how you can have your say.

Anyone who’s thinking of commenting on the application is strongly advised to study the FAQs and the Planning Statement before doing so. Both of these are linked to in the above-mentioned article. They’re written in fairly accessible language and are only six pages between them. It may be that these address any concerns you have.

A meeting with Sovereign (SNG)

The problems with the various garages in Hungerford owned by SNG continue.

Attempts to arrange a meeting with SNG to discuss their increasingly dangerous state have been thwarted by regular changes of staff at SNG. DC Gaines said she had recently written a formal email to all the people who’ve ever been involved in this discussion in order to try to get some attention.

Fly-tipping at the mini recycling centre

There have recently been cases of items being left at this facility in the Station Road car park including furniture and household waste. Some of these had address labels which means that the offenders might be identified and charged. Charges for fly-tipping can be considerable. Residents were reminded by the Mayor that using an third-party contractor to dispose of waste is no defence if the origin can be traced back to the owner. Anyone approached by such a company needs to see, and note, their credentials that they are authorised to deal with waste.

Dog mess and rubbish at the playgrounds

This has been reported at Bulpit Lane and elsewhere. HTC will be being extra-vigilant on this and anyone who sees any such cases is urged to report it to HTC (see contact details below).

The pothole by the John O’Gaunt pub

This has finally been fixed (see Penny Post’s Hungerford Area Weekly News for the weekly updates on this saga). At the meeting, Councillor Keates summarised the main problem, which was the discovery last month of a large disused gas-main junction (records of which appeared on no maps) which was preventing any of the twelve repairs in the last eighteen months from being permanent.

Although grateful for what seems to be a final resolution, he was concerned that communication between the various involved parties and HTC largely broke down after this discovery (which resulted in more delay while it was addressed). He said he was aiming to arrange a meeting with WBC and perhaps others to discuss how this could be improved in the future.

Aside from the national pothole problem, there may also be further problems due to the same or similar causes in Hungerford as other parts of this ancient pipe are presumably buried elsewhere in the town and may yet cause similar problems.

The Mayor’s report

Farewell…

Reporting a problem

Following some members mentioning specific cases of matters such a potholes and dog mess, the Mayor reminded everyone that the best way of reporting these matters, and a wide range of other ones, was WBC’s Report a Problem page. In general this works very well and gives the person making the comment a unique reference number and the option for being updated about the progress.

Councillors were also encouraged to make this link known to residents who might contact them about an issue so they can go straight to WBC on the issue, rather than doing so via HTC councillors.

District Councillor’s report

DC Gaines was present at the meeting. Matters she covered included the following:

• Garages. See above (“A meeting with Sovereign”).
• Members’ bids. She reported that there were changes to these for 2026-27, with the total amounts now being less (perhaps £3,000 rather than £5,000 per member) but without the requirement that these be match-funded (though they still could be). The process for this round of bids starts on 13 April with the funding decisions announced hopefully in mid June.
• Planning changes. The government has launched a consultation which advocates reducing the role of planning committees in decision-making, which closes at 11.59pm on 23 April. The view of DC Gaines, and of HTC, was this this would result in more lack of democracy, taking away DC’s rights to call decisions to committee to discuss, and taking decisions away from the grass roots and giving it to central government. Parish and town councils, and members of the public, will still be able to make their views known on applications. Councillor (and former DC) Cole, the Chair of HTC’s Environment and Planning Committee, suggested that this meant that any comments would need to be even more detailed and technical than they already were, so incurring still more time, if they were to have any weight under the new arrangements.
• The call for sites. West Berkshire Council has extended the deadline to 11.59pm on Monday 13 April. This an opportunity for landowners, site promoters, developers, and other interested parties to suggest land within West Berkshire that could be developed. These will be considered during the refresh of WBC’s current local plan. For more information click here.

Contact details for the Hungerford & Kintbury ward members (and all the other ones) can be found by clicking here.

Britain in Bloom and Hungerford in Bloom

Having won a silver Britian in Bloom medal last year, Hungerford is hoping to go one better this summer. As part of this plan, the Town Council is particularly keen to create and support initiatives that will improve biodiversity and help pollinators, such as wildflower areas and beehives. This is seen as a great opportunity not only to get the town looking its best but also to introduce some sustainable features which will last for more than just a season. Households are encouraged to get involved as well.

Councillor Day told the meeting that a good deal of work had already been done with the help of volunteers but that more help was needed.  If you have any suggestions, or need advice, or want to help in any way,  contact HTC Councillor Nia Day whose details van be found by clicking here.

The 2026 town meeting

All at the meeting agreed that this had again been a great success and the exhibition-style format (which other councils are starting to adopt) will be continued with.

See also the Mayor’s report above.

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.