OPINION: Letters to the editor of the Newbury Weekly News
Loss of parking will kill our market town
Thank you for publicising the concerns of Hungerford shopkeepers about the proposed piazza and the loss of parking that will result from removing parking from the area in front of the town hall (Newbury Weekly News, December 5).
We retailers feel that our views have been ignored and that without adequate parking Hungerford as a market town will die.
Simon King
High Street, Hungerford
Dare to be different over leisure park site
Hello Mr Atul Hindocha [owner of Newbury Leisure Park in Lower Way (Newbury Weekly News, December 12)].
I hope you are well in this holiday season of goodwill and giving.
Is it possible to develop what used to be the Lakeside bowling centre into a community centre that could be a hub for the community?
If you owned the site since 2012, you should know that the site isn't a low flood risk, but a high flood risk with water going from the lake well into the car parks, when the facility was opened.
Was the facility reopened after the second lockdown, as I don’t remember it being reopened?
This facility can be turned into a hub for the community, not another housing estate where not enough affordable houses are built.
I moved into Lower Way back in 2006.
Yes, the club noise was annoying, so don’t open another club.
Have instead movie nights in the former club facility.
Is there any children’s soft play area outside of the garden centre, where parking is pretty bad?
I remember bowling leagues playing there several nights a week.
Why not expand that to kids leagues on Saturdays and Sundays, as not everyone plays rugby or football?
I remember seeing the Variety Boys and Girls Club van parked outside the bowling alley in the afternoon, so those who are challenged can enjoy the facilities.
Could Swings & Smiles also want to make use of the facilities?
Could Newbury College send students on catering courses there to get some real life experience?
Local groups could meet there for coffee mornings, senior citizens could meet there as well to enjoy some other people’s company.
You could start a loyalty card for NHS staff, and other blue light heroes. Include that to teachers.
How about a competition between the local schools, and the winner could take over the place for an evening at the end of the summer team.
I wish I had the money to buy the place, but I don’t, but I think you can see if organisations such as Greenham Trust, The Prince’s Trust or some other angel investor could turn what is a derelict facility into a true hub of the community.
We have enough houses, we don't have anywhere in Newbury or Thatcham that with a little re-investment can get the kids off the streets, people into the facility, and have a good time right on their doorstep.
That is unless you want Newbury, Thatcham and the surrounding area to go to Basingstoke, Reading or Oxford.
The list is endless of what that facility can bring to the community and not just another bunch of houses.
Dare to be different, dream of what it could be, and not what it was.
Philip J De Monte
Lower Way, Thatcham
Bring back parking for everyday use in town
Newbury is not a welcoming town since this dire council pedestrianised it.
In order to increase the existing footfall dramatically on market days, parking in Bartholomew Street, Northbrook Street, Market Place, disabled bays outside town council offices and Cheap Street should be reinstated for everyday use.
Market traders should have their vehicle on site, and, in those towns where they are allowed, all have awnings with side walls attached to keep inclement weather out and the cover also extends to keep customers dry.
In North Yorkshire, where we lived for 12 years, the Malton weekly market had a high footfall with 20-plus market traders with their vehicles, then a monthly farmers market again, very highly supported.
West Berks Council are totally out of step and their pedestrianisation has dramatic consequences as a lot of Newbury people now shop in Basingstoke where in the retail parks you can park outside the shops easily.
Whoever came up with the idea to install the extra traffic light crossing by the retail park should be fired.
The Tesco crossing is good enough and by taking out the other lights traffic from the retail park could flow freely, thus not causing the mammoth tailback of traffic in the retail and Tesco’s car parks.
Jeremy Scarr
Sandleford Lodge Park, Thatcham
Market traders’ vehicles should be able to park
You invited comments on the subject of Newbury Market Place’s traders’ parking (Newbury Weekly News, December 12).
The view of my wife and I who have used the Thursday and Saturday markets almost every week for over 30 years is that the traders should be able to have their vehicles on site.
Topping up their stalls and access to refrigeration or whatever they need in their vans would be much simpler and their set up and dismantling would be much more efficient (and more pleasant in poor weather).
The monthly farmers market traders appear to always have their vehicles on site so why not the weekly traders?
What is the logic for the inconsistency?
Clive and Jackie Chadwick
Wash Common
It’s own goals all round over Faraday Road pitch
As the Faraday Road political football of blame is passed between the Lib Dems and the Tories the waste goes on with only own goals being scored.
With the Tories moaning rightly about the cost of getting football played there the ball whistled into their net since it was they who closed the club and let the clubhouse burn down on their watch.
However, the game is not lost for the Tories because the Lib Dems immediately came back and equalised with their goalie tripping over his own laces and letting a backhanded fumble into their net.
The fumble was of course caused by the Lib Dems’ misunderstanding of what the crowd that had voted for them expected.
The perception of the electorate was that the ground would be returned to its former glory with a clubhouse and 3G pitch as their manifesto appeared to say.
The reality is an own goal costing £460,000, just to get one or two games played on a grass pitch with portable buildings and a generator for hospitality and changing. (Let’s not mention the bungle over the size of the changing rooms and the £26,000 that that cost.)
The Lib Dems spectacularly scored another own goal.
Apparently, despite there having been planning permission in place for a 3G pitch the councillors preferred to ignore it and let it lapse.
This means they can give more work to the Volker boys to rip up all the pitch work done so far and then put down a 3G pitch.
They could have done this the day they came into power.
The permissions were all there but now they need to apply for their own new planning permission which, if not 100 per cent correct, may get challenged or delayed.
The game is still playing but it looks like the bungling burghers of the Lib Dem council are in the process of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
John Gotelee
London Road, Newbury
