'What if a light aircraft crashed on Membury services?'

West Berkshire Council has promised to look into risks of a serious incident at Membury Services on the M4.

It followed a public question to the council's executive committee last night (Thursday) claiming that there was no plan for a light aircraft crashing on the site.

Questioner Sam Coppinger said “the cumulative effects of uncontrolled development at Membury have created a melting pot of hazardous activities in very close proximity (grain store, fuel depot, motorway service areas and their petrol stations, chemical industry, timber merchants and mechanical engineering and operational airfield) alongside the M4."

She pushed the committee to look at the site again, claiming that even the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service didn't have an emergency response plan in the advent of a disaster.

"What if a light aircraft crashed on it?" she asked.

Thomas Marino (Con, Tilehurst and Purley), the portfolio holder for internal governance and strategic partnerships, said the council does have an emergency response framework, but offered to look at a risk assessment for Membury.