Must admit Andy that this latest policy from WBC is a storage one. If your search the town vision then the wharf is supposed to end up as a marina at some point... Perhaps they want these taxis to become water taxis... Roll over Venice - Newbury is here to take over

From what I hear the day they were told about the closure of this rank they held meetings with Newbury town council, Tvp and WBC but were not listened too... I understand Tvp also had objections - namely increased violence.

It was pushed through by some guy called Mark Cole at WBC (anyone know who or what he does?)

Anyway I have put a poll on the forum to see what people really think.

Here in Hungerford - what was deemed at one time to be one of the most important cams in the area, still moves... It either points directly at the ground (perhaps danger mouse is about) or it points at a tree (perhaps
It's a bird watching cam).

This cam is located on the A4 junction with Charmham Street and Charnham business park. More importantly it's outside the only 24 hour filling station we have.

This cam was supposed to be watching the garage, vehicles entering and leaving the town... As an early warning to the people of Newbury...

Watch out Newbury it's not teams of shop lifters you need to worry about its Danger Mouse !'n

I've been reading this topic with interested as a regular user of cabs.

I have posted a poll on here... Thought it would be good to find out an unbiased view on this topic... Find the poll and vote

Reading boards there appears to be a mixed view on this matter, I'm interested in seeing what you think.

Personally I'm in favour... Anything that saves me staggering any further :-)

I represnet one of the taxi companies in Hungerford; I am also a committee member for West Berkshire Hackney & Private Hire Association, this is our statement.....


I write this a committee member of West Berkshire Hackney & Private Hire Association.

I would like to start by saying that as an association our first thoughts are for the families, relatives and loved ones of those affected by this appalling series of events.

It's for none of us to judge another, and none of us know what makes another person do what he or she does.

For us as an association we have a particular empathy as our licencing area covers Hungerford. Even though our atrocity happened some 22 years ago it is still very raw a lot of people in our town were affected at the time and to this day are.

We need to remember we lost a valued member of our trade in Hungerford, Mr Barnard, who still till this date is remembered and missed.


Mark - Not so angrry of Hungerford more SAD

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article...articleID=12101

HUNGERFORD shop keepers are planning a campaign to encourage people to use independent shops in the town.
The ‘I Love Hungerford’ initiative will be tied in with plans to promote independent stores to shoppers with fliers and carrier bags.
Chairman of the town’s Chamber of Commerce, Ben Blake, who owns Sugarmouse in the High Street, said that a similar scheme had already had success in Henley.
“We don’t want to thrust anything on people, we just want to point out the main benefits of shopping with independents, so maybe next time they will think twice,” he added.

I think this is really nice - shouldn't more towns think along this line !!!

Look - they were testing the strengh of the riot shield - however with all those scratches on it I hope they dont have to look through it !!!!

We are also on a Thursday collection - It will be a month to the day since we have had a been emptied - that's if they turn up then as a "light dusting" of snow is forecast for then.

Wonder how quick they'd move it if I plonked my wheely bin, and my excess outside the main doors of council offices in Market St. - bet it would be gone fairly quickly.

Perhaps I should seeing as they have been paid for this by way of council tax - or perhaps thet may offer my a small rebate to cover this part of my bill - somehow I doubt it !

I fear that we again are going off topic but to quote them from their own constituation document -

"1.1 The Council’s Constitution
West Berkshire District Council has produced a Constitution which sets out how the
Council operates, how decisions are made and the procedures which are followed to
ensure that these decisions are efficient, transparent and accountable to local
people. Some of these processes are required by law, while others are a matter for
the Council to choose."

Link to this is - http://www.westberks.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=262&p=0

However I agree that it may sound like I'm complaining that they are gritting to much now - frost was not forcast for last night, I actually emaied the met office and asked this question - They replied "No the overnight temperature for this area was not expected to drop below 1 or 2c - however we expected rain to continue to 4am with a clearing sky to follow. No frost was recorded at our stations within your area"

Surely if I can get this information then "the council", must get more detailed updated than us!

My concern is that when we do get our next cold snap we are all going to be left with little or no salt / grit as they are being over zelus.

I'll give you the my example from this evening - at 10pm in Hungerford High Street, we had a gritter, followed by a recovery vehicle, followed by another gritter - Both gritters speading either salt or grit or the current mix.

My question is WHY? (Perhaps the recovery truck was just in case but I suspect that this was by accident :-) )

Yes this evening is frosty - but do they know something we don't ? I'm guessing tomorrows trip to work will be bad if we need to have gritter out in tandum.

Now I'm totally confused (yes it doesn't take much) I have checked the weather forecast for the next 7 days and can't see much sign of frost on the way.

Can someone please explain why on earth WBDC are out gritting this evening?

Let alone 2am on a Sunday morning, and before anyone suggests it is good to have the salt on the roads - it was raining at the time!!!

No wonder our wonderful council runs out of salt so quickly, and no wonder budgets are low when they happily pay for the gritting team work when they don't need to.

On the flip side - it was one of the only west Berkshire gritters seen in hungerford for quite sometime.

Perhaps this makes me sad but I follow "Newbury waste" on Twitter, this was this evening blog by them.....

"Loving how a few weeks without makes  everyone so appreciative of their rub
bish being collected "

All I can say is how conceated can one person be!

We are now close to a month without a single collection. Someone needs a bloody good kick up the rear. What a sad bunch, if I ran my company this way I'd be calling in the the receiver before much longer.

Time for someone to look at the quaility of service this company is providing to the council tax payers.

Problems with Traffic lights in the Newbury area seems to be an ongoing issue.

I thought I had read that with the instalation of the new lights at the Robinhood things would improve - have they? have they heck as like!!!!

If I remember correctly it was publicised that if I approached either the Robinhood from the North or the Police stn roundabout from the south and hit either sets on green, as long as I proceeded at the speed limit, then I would meet the next set on green as well - they were supposed to be "link - phased"


Are they? in my opinion they traffic jams in this part of town are worse since the lights were installed.... and even since Market street reverting to two traffic it really hasn't got any better.