Newbury in the future – can you help?

Work on Newbury’s Neighbourhood Development Plan is about to start, which will see a blueprint for the town emerge for the future.

The town council is leading the charge to put some stakes in the ground around planning issues.

A task force of six councillors and six members of the public have formed a steering group, and it wants to involve all sectors of Newbury society in the plan’s formation.

“We want to try and enshrine certain aspiration the town will have for planning applications,” said councillor Nigel Foot (Lib Dem, West Fields), who is chairing the steering group. “We hope this can be done in an environmentally sound way and it will benefit our community.

“It is basically an aid to the planning authority at West Berkshire Council. We hope it will set out certain parameters about the scale and sustainability of any future builds in the town. Also how we plan footpaths and cycleways.”

The Neighbourhood Plan will need to dovetail in to the district-wide Local Plan, currently under review by West Berkshire Council.

The town council does not have any authority over planning decisions, as that rests at a district level, but it wants future developers to understand what the people of Newbury want for their town.

Mr Foot said: “We have six individuals who have expertise in project management and active travel and who are prepared to give up their time to get the plan developed.

“We also have input from the district council planning officers so we don’t contradict the plan from the distract level.

“We are concerned with the parish boundary of Newbury and we are fairly built up. So we don’t have a lot of spare land for a housing policy if you like.

“We have had a lot of pressure from developers on brownfield sites, and because we have no plan in place there is a danger those might not be in keeping with the town.

“We also need to get our conservation areas in place, so we can preserve our designated heritage buildings.

“We want to encourage people not to use cars all the time, so walking and using bikes. We have declared a climate emergency as a council and we want to build in proposals that future developments pay attention to this.”

Mr Foot hopes that, in two years, the Neighbourhood Development Plan will be put to referendum in Newbury before it gets adopted by the district.

West Berkshire Council’s Local Plan is due for its next iteration later this summer.