Public meeting to be held by businesses on latest A339 access plans

Last week, West Berkshire Council announced that a formal planning application was expected to be submitted in the coming weeks for the new two-way access road, to connect the estate’s Fleming Road with the A339 at a new traffic light junction, with a dedicated right-hand-turn lane from the northbound carriageway incorporated onto the dual carriageway.
While the council argues that the road has been public knowledge for many years and included in plans for the estate regeneration and in the Newbury Vision, managing director of Fleming Road business Acedes Gear Tools, Tony Coleman, said that there had been no recent detailed information regarding the road’s progress.
“Suddenly, out of the blue, an application for a compulsory purchase order lands on my desk,” he said. “We don’t know if they are knocking our building down, if they want half of our car park."
West Berkshire Council has previously said that if the junction was not built, the regeneration scheme proposed for the London Road Industrial Estate would not go ahead.
A request by the Newbury Weekly News for an interview with a member of the highways department, to give further insight into the new road scheme was turned down this week although when asked whether nearby businesses had been adequately consulted, council spokesman, Keith Ulyatt, said: “Only one building in Fleming Road would need to be demolished to accommodate the new junction, and that is vacant. Three business leaseholders that would be directly affected by [the] creation of the road junction have been written to directly."
The meeting is being held on Thursday, December 11, at 12.30pm. Anyone is welcome, but is asked to confirm attendance in advance by calling Chris Manston at Acedes on (01635) 524252 or emailing chrism@acedes.co.uk.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of this week's Newbury Weekly News.